


Love Child

by LadyLacerta



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Enemies To Parents, Enemies to Friends, F/M, No Smut, Parenthood, Time Turner (Harry Potter), i had a daughter with WHO, they don't actually get together in this fic because like the age gap is gross but
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2020-03-05 17:23:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 33
Words: 34,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18833266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyLacerta/pseuds/LadyLacerta
Summary: Sometimes a couple needs its own daughter to play matchmaker...~~~~~“I’m going to ask one last time. Who are you?”The girl raised her chin.“Eileen.”A strange coincidence.“Full. Name.”“Eileen Jean Granger.”Granger? Was that why she was familiar? She had to be related, if loosely, to the other Granger he knew… The eyes, the color of her skin, her slightly too large front teeth. And yet…“Hyphen Snape.” she said.“Excuse me?”“Eileen Jean Granger-Snape. You two were really pissed when you found out I couldn’t be just Granger if you were my father on the birth certificate.”





	1. Chapter 1

Severus thought he hated being a teacher. What he actually hated, though, was being a Headmaster. Perhaps he would have liked it better if everyone wasn’t out to get his head. The only person who knew the truth was dead, by his hand. He became the Order of the Phoenix’s greatest persona non-grata.  

And still, the Carrows were starting to grow suspicious of him.

What reminded him of that fact was McGonagall knocking on his door.

“I found a student wandering around past her curfew,” she said from the outside.

And she went straight to him because he didn’t have the stomach to punish the students like the Carrows did. If he couldn’t help the students, then what was the point of keeping his cover?

“Come in.”

“I wouldn’t normally bother you with such petty issues…” said McGonagall, wandering into the room. “But this student demanded to speak to you in person.”

Following her, came in a student which had to be in her later years of Hogwarts, in a uniform Severus did not recognize, though she looked familiar. It was something about her gait, and some traces of her sharp face. Her jet-black hair formed a cloud of loose coils around her head, falling down past her shoulders.

She wore the Ravenclaw colors.

Despite her not being a Slytherin, Severus recalled the faces of all Hogwarts’ students. She wasn’t a student. Was she a member of the Order who snuck in? Was that why McGonagall decided to cave into her demand?

“Quite the demand from someone caught past the curfew, Miss…?”

“I think you might want Headm— Professor McGonagall to leave the room.” she said.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Oh, trust me.”

“I shall take my leave either way, Headmaster. I have other matters to tend to.”

And possibly didn’t want to deal with the mess that was about to fall onto Severus’ lap. McGonagall fled the room, closing the door behind herself, and the invader sat on a visitor’s chair without invitation, studying him with an inquisitive yet shocked gaze.

“I’m going to ask one last time. Who are you?”

The girl raised her chin.

“Eileen.”

A strange coincidence.

“Full. Name.”

“Eileen Jean Granger.”

Granger? Was that why she was familiar? She had to be related, if loosely, to the other Granger he knew… The eyes, the color of her skin, her slightly too large front teeth. And yet…

“Hyphen Snape.” she said.

“Excuse me?”

“Eileen Jean Granger-Snape. You two were _really_ pissed when you found out I couldn’t be just Granger if you were my father on the birth certificate.”


	2. Chapter 2

“As far as I am aware,” Severus said through his teeth. “I haven’t been a father. Let alone with someone of the surname Granger.”

“Not yet.” Eileen Jean Granger-Snape — what an unfortunate name — replied and fished out of inside her robes a broken time-turner. “But you will have a child.”

Severus pinched the bridge of his nose. He could ask if it was a prank, but… There was no way it could be. Not with the time-turner. And Eileen just seemed to be a perfectly even combination of his features with… Granger’s.

She had his body frame, and his sharp face, but her hair, and her lips and the _teeth_.

“With… With who?”

“Hermione Granger? She’s about this tall,” Eileen touched a point on her arm bellow her shoulder. “Crazy voluminous hair, pretty smile? You must remember her.”

The room spun around Severus and he had to muster all of his willpower not to faint. He closed his eyes for a moment. Eileen, unfortunately, still sat before him when he opened his eyes. He wasn’t hallucinating.

“So… You’re Headmaster, uh? This means everyone currently thinks you’re the bad guy. For killing Dumbledore and all. McGonagall will be the Headmaster once you quit the job. I almost slipped right there, did you notice?”

Severus’ blood pressure must have gone to his feet. He asked:

“How much do you know?”

“Everything. I think… No, I’m pretty sure you and mom knew I was coming back to here.” A gasp. “You _knew_!”

She produced out of her pocket a gadget Severus did not recognize — which once again supported Eileen’s claim that she came from the future. It was a thin screen, with no buttons. The screen came to life when Eileen touched it.

Eileen _came from the future_.

She jumped out of her seat and perched easily on his armrest. He was so distraught he let her, and she placed her thing right in front of his nose.

“You sent me a text earlier today — well, I guess it wasn’t today — and look at it.”

It was a white screen, with blue and gray text bubbles. At the top, all it said was Dad and a red heart. But then there was a picture of him absent-mindedly reading on an armchair somewhere that wasn’t Spinner’s End, and his hair was _grey_.

The most recent message said: _Open this next time you see me and your mom._

A following bubble pressed: _I mean it. I’ll give you ten pounds when you get back if you wait to open the video._

Underneath that, there was a picture with a transparent grey triangle right on the middle. Still, he couldn’t mistake it was him and Miss Hermione Granger sat at a couch. He had his arm around her shoulders. Even through the tiny picture, he could see the golden band on her ring finger.

“I _married_ her.”

“Yeah? What did you think? I was a product of a drunken one-night stand and you never spoke to each other again?”

“Are you certain this is _your_ past?”

That gave Eileen pause.

“I guess… I should check. Aren’t you the Severus Snape who is severely lactose intolerant, can’t swim to save your life, tried to pierce your own ears when you were seventeen, and has an ouroboros tattooed on your back?” Shit. “By the way, great foreshadowing. Eileen is my name because is your mother’s name. You were born on January, 9th, 1969, and you are _such_ a Capricorn despite not believing in astrology.

“You grew up on a place called Spinner’s End, and you were a Slytherin, of course. What is less obvious is that Lily Potter was the childhood friend you were in love with, and you did become a Death Eater, but defected when you leaked the prophecy that put the Potters in direct danger. And then Lily died. You were obsessed with her for quite a while. You’re still obsessed with her now. And you don’t know what shocks you more: that you fell in love again and married, or that you did those things with Hermione Granger.” A pause for a breath. “She’s a Gryffindor muggleborn, though. That seems to be your thing.”

Severus needed to close his eyes again as not to simply go unconscious from the sheer shock of hearing a girl spitting out his whole life story like that, all the lesser known details. She even knew what he was thinking.

“I’m sorry,” she said, laying a hand on his shoulder. “Too much?”

He stood up and went to pace at the opposite corner of the room.

“Regardless of either this is your past or not, which, I doubt it is, you can’t be here.”

“I know. We need to find mom. Your text said for me to open the video when I found you _and_ mom. She should be at Grimmauld Place, right? With Harry Potter and Ron Weasley? Looking for the horcruxes to kill Voldemort?” Eileen said. Another soft gasp. “I know where all the horcruxes are and how to get to them.”

The Carrows absolutely could not get to her.   

 “You have to go.” Severus replied, with more urgency.

 “I’m only fifteen! I can’t apparate!”

At least the immediate threat made the whole situation sit at the back of Severus’ mind. He needed to get Eileen out of Hogwarts, and needed to take her to Grimmauld Place and…

“I can’t go to Grimmauld Place,” he argued.

“Do you have a choice? I may be a Ravenclaw, but I know it’s dangerous to learn how to apparate on your own. So I never attempted it.”

“Damn it.”  

“Sorry, dad, I didn’t know I’d crash back in time!” Eileen retorted.

“I am _not_ your dad.”

“We have been through this just now.”

Severus groaned and headed to the door.

“There is no time to waste.”

She slid from the armrest and passed by him to trot down the stairs to the office. When they came out to the silent hallway, she walked right beside him — being only three or four inches shorter, her steps could keep up with his — and, noticing it or not, she reached for his hand.

He, who used to laugh at parents who said everything was different when the child was yours, let her.


	3. Chapter 3

Hermione couldn’t stand still. She paced around the living room, like a predator stuck in a tiny cell. They shouldn’t have returned to Grimmauld Place. Not after stealing the locket, not after Death Eaters started showing up at their doorstep, waiting to catch someone coming or going to break the Fidelius Charm.

Besides, Snape was a Secret Keeper, too. At any time, he could tattle the location to Voldemort and the place would be storming with Death Eaters.

But…

Ron needed rest.

And they needed to think. Which became harder and harder to do with the locket.

Hermione was fine with solitude, though she began despising being alone on guard duty. Too much silence and far too much time to think how bad the situation was. With Voldemort controlling Hogwarts, and the Ministry… The Order of the Phoenix disbanded…

She sat down at a dusty armchair, put her head in her hands and stayed that way.

She couldn’t breakdown.

She needed to keep it together.

Keep it together.

Keep it together.

A knock on the door.

Hermione gasped and covered her mouth mid-gasp as she leaped out of her place. Tip-toeing, she went to the entrance hallway, wand at ready. Death Eaters wouldn’t knock, would they? It could be another member of the Order, perhaps, looking for them? Looking for someone else, or a place to stay, or…

Though Death Eaters would, indeed, knock, instead of barging right in.

“Is someone there?”

The voice was unmistakable.

 _Snape_.

Hermione got closer to the door and rested her ear against the wood. What was he doing at Grimmauld Place? And knocking at the door? And, it seemed, without a full army of Death Eaters?

“Are you certain she is inside?” he asked to someone.

“She must be! It’s September, right? Wasn’t the Ministry infiltrated a few days ago? And a locket was stolen from Umbridge?” said a young, feminine voice. “Wouldn’t it be better if _I_ called?”

“She doesn’t know you. She will think it’s a lure. Besides, there are two more people in there. If you are right.”

“Well, dad, for one, I am nearly always right. Second, she thinks you’re a Death Eater, so perhaps—”

Hermione couldn’t hear the rest over the sound of her own gasp.

Snape had a _daughter_?

“There is _someone_. I heard a gasp from the other side of the door.” The girl’s voice got louder: “Hello? We come in peace… Or something like that. Could you open the door? Hermione or Harry or Ron or whoever’s listening?”

“Don’t get too close.” Snape warned. “I’m certain this door is heavily warded. Against me, especially.”

“You could undo it.”

“It’d take a couple of hours, which we don’t have. And how good will it look for me to break in? After everything I’ve already done?”

Despite knowing full well opening the door might represent ending it all, Hermione couldn’t help… Wanting to open.

“You didn’t have much of a choice for the most part.” the girl argued.

“They don’t know that. No one knows that. The only person who did know is now dead by my own hand.” he replied, lowering his voice. Then he sighed. “Perhaps I should find another place for you to stay while I think of way to reach Granger without her hexing me and you both. You won’t want that.”

“Oh, trust me, dear father. I know.”

“Then you understand why I’m being careful. You’re too important.”

She took a couple of steps back, and with a whip of her wand, flung the door open, to find Snape and a teenage girl standing by the doorstep.

He pulled the girl by the wrist to stand behind him.

She wore a Hogwarts’ uniform, though must be a newer model.

Snape’s daughter was a Ravenclaw.

The fact Snape had a daughter and she wasn’t a Slytherin was just… The cherry on the cake. Of the whole surreal situation.

“I’m not going to hex a teenage girl.” Hermione said.

“If she is mine, yes, you just might.” Snape replied, evenly.

“So I’m yours now?” the girl retorted from behind him, to which he only groaned, rolling his eyes.

“You know what I meant.” He turned to Hermione: “Can we come in?”

She snorted in response.

“I guess. Though here is the worst place possible to hide your daughter from the Death Eaters, sir.”

If Hermione just saw the girl in passing, she’d never be able to tell. With her standing right beside him, though, she looked like her father as much as a black girl could look like Mr. Severus white-as-a-piece-of-paper Snape.

“I’m well aware, Granger.” he said, stepping inside and putting away his wand.

His daughter followed, and closed the door behind her, watching Hermione with expectant, excited eyes.

Hermione blinked, took a deep breath and looked away, deeply unsettled for some reason.

“What’s your name?” she asked the girl.

“Eileen. A pleasure.”

His mother's name...

Eileen must be around Hermione’s age.

“How…” Hermione stammered. “When…” That was not the question she wanted to ask. “ _Who_?”

Who the hell decided to have sex with Snape and have his child? Even more so because it had been a black woman. It wouldn’t be a shocker if he was racist as well as a pureblood supremacist, yet he had a daughter with a black woman and _cared_ for said daughter.

But… He wasn’t a pureblood supremacist, was he? He came in good faith to Grimmauld Place. And he hadn’t given the location to Voldemort yet, for no discerning reason. And his own child spoke to him as if he wasn’t really a Death Eater.

 _And_ he brought her to Grimmauld Place, despite fearing for her safety.

Hermione’s head started to spin.

Snape pressed his lips. He couldn’t meet Hermione’s gaze.

Eileen sighed and started getting something out of her robes. A time-turner. A broken time-turner.

“I wish there was a better way to say this to you…” She smiled. There was a gap between her front teeth, which were a bit bigger than the rest of them. “Mom.”

Hermione’s knees faltered and everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Snape: "I've only had Eileen for an hour and a half. But if anything happened to her, I would kill everyone at Grimmauld Place and then myself."
> 
> Also, if you've been subscribed to me, you know I tend to update daily, but with this one I won't go at that pace. My last fic was huge, I'm burned out and I have two other original writing projetcs going on. I'll try to post every week, tho.


	4. Chapter 4

“Fantastic.” Severus said to himself, as he looked over Granger unconscious at the couch, feet propped up.

He figured Potter and Weasley were asleep upstairs and Granger was in guard duty for the night, and although he warded the living room door to make sure no sound would escape the room and alert them, the two boys could still wake up on their own and, who knows, decide to have a drink of water.

And they’d find Severus with their unconscious friend, plus a teenage girl who no doubt was his relative in some way.

“I’m sorry,” said Eileen. “I didn’t think she was going to faint!”

“ _I_ nearly fainted. And _I_ knew where I stood all along. Perhaps it’s obvious to you, who knows the full story, but to Granger? It is double the shock!”

“I know, I know that, but—”

Severus cut her off:

“Knowing is one thing. Understanding is another.”

Eileen crossed her arms in front of her chest and turned on her heels to pout facing the other way.

Severus could scarcely blame her for getting it wrong, though. Now that they were out of immediate danger, he started to realize that he shouldn’t have brought Eileen to Grimmauld Place first thing…

Besides, now that he gave it a second though, she couldn’t really _stay_ at Grimmauld Place. Granger was a teenager girl herself. Eileen wasn’t a toddler, but she was young, naïve and unprepared to be thrown into the middle of a war.

The same could be said about Granger.

Which begged the question:

“Which year did you come from?”

“2019.” Eileen replied, losing her pout and facing him again. “Don’t worry, it isn’t like I’m going to be conceived tomorrow. You’re going to like each other first before that happening.”

She was born in 2004, then. Still eerily close for Severus’ taste; that would make Granger twenty-four years old if his memory didn’t fail him. And they were probably married for some time before then…

Merlin.

Better not to think too much about it.

“I don’t foresee that ever happening.”

“Perhaps it wouldn’t if I hadn’t shown up. You know, so much makes way more sense now.”

“Such as…”

Granger groaned and sat up, still seeming way too dizzy. Eileen ran to her aid, sitting beside her.

“Hermione? Do you want some water or something?”

Nice touch of her not to say “mom”. Severus supposed it’d be useless to request not to be called “dad”. And in way he hadn’t realized how much he needed at least one living person to know the whole truth about him and where he stood. If Eileen wished to call him that way, so be it.

Granger looked at Eileen and bobbed her jaw up and down. Then shut it close, then looked over at Severus, then looked away.

“This can’t be true.” she said.

“Dad isn’t really a Death Eater.” Eileen replied. “And hasn’t been for nearly two decades. Dumbledore was dying already, you know. And… And he asked dad to finish the job if it came down to it because no other Death Eater would make it as quick and painless. They’d torture him first for information, and considering his state… They might have succeeded. I mean… You never wondered why the Death Eaters hadn’t just barged in here already? Or how did the Order of the Phoenix survive for such a long time even though one of its most important members was a shady double agent?”

Granger swallowed dry and rubbed her eyes.

“I did, but this isn’t the only issue.”

No argument could faze Eileen:

“Well, he’s not all that bad when you get to know him. Given his behavior in the classroom, you wouldn’t think he’d ever have a daughter who loves him.”

Severus was glad they were so caught up in their conversation that they paid no attention to him, for he must have turned purple, or green, or some unnatural color. Of course, he knew Eileen didn’t dislike him, though the way she casually professed her love caught him off guard.

More so because it was the first time someone other than his long-deceased mother said so. Even she hadn’t said it much, or that with that level of casualty. As if it were an obvious, given thing.

“At least _someone_ does,” Granger retorted, as cruel to him as he had been to her.

He deserved it.

Eileen shook her head.

“Merlin. You two really weren’t joking when you said you hated each other.”

“How am I supposed to feel any other way? Why did he bring you here? What’s the point of all this?”

“Because I know where all the horcruxes are and how to get to them.”

“Oh.” Granger leaned back on the couch and finally acknowledged Severus’ presence: “Well, then. I suppose you can leave now. She’s safe with me, and I assume you don’t want to be here any longer than you absolutely must.”

Severus still couldn’t meet her gaze.

“There’s… There’s a video.” he stammered.

“Oh!” Eileen exclaimed. “Right! I completely forgot about it.”

With a flourish, she got her… Thing out of her pocket. Granger had the clarity of mind to ask:

“What _is_ this?”

“It’s a phone. Well, a smartphone. It can do almost anything a computer does, plus basic phone functions… And the screen responds to touch. And the camera is amazing. Muggle science went above and beyond magic in 2019, I’ll tell you that.”

As Eileen spoke, she moved around the phone to open the conversation between herself and future Severus. She scooted closer to Granger and patted the empty space on the couch.

“Dad, your text said to open this video with the two of you together.”

Granger was too transfixed by Eileen’s phone to mind him sitting down. She creased her brows when she spotted Severus’ picture.

“Is that—”

“Yup.”

“And is this—”

“You two, disgustingly married? Yes, it is.”

“Oh my God,” Granger said under her breath.

Eileen touched on the tiny picture and turned the phone sideways; the video took up the whole screen. It was him and Granger, comfortably settled at a spacious, well-lit living room.

“Yes, we’re married, and yes, this is where we live.” the Granger from the future started. How old was she? Forty? Severus wished he’d look that good at forty. Because he looked positively Jurassic sitting next to her… At what? Fifty-nine? Sixty? “We’ll talk about that in a second. The more pressing issue here is Eileen. Sweetie, I hope that explains why we never told you the full story.”

“Sure does, mom.” Eileen mumbled to herself.

 


	5. Chapter 5

“First of all,” started future Hermione. “Yes, we knew the time-turner was going to break. As things started to happen the way we knew they _could_ happen, we realized this, too, was going to take place. Eileen, the necklace I gave you for your birthday is a time-turner. If… If a time-turner were a port key. It will take you back to the moment, place and reality that you disappeared. You just need to press down on the sun.”

Eileen took out of her inside her robes yet another contraption. It was a necklace with a rather strange pendant: the solar system, with its planets and moons circling around the sun, ticking softly.

“So that’s what _this_ is.” she said.

Future Snape sighed.

“Of course, you’ll want to stick around. I remember that before opening this you started to suspect the fact you’ve went into the past was the reason your mom and I stopped hating each other’s guts. And you were right. We got together because you appeared. Not _when_ you appeared, however. I have enough moral failings to fill out a toilet paper roll, but lusting after teenagers is not on the list.”

An adult Hermione the teenager Hermione could scarcely recognize snorted at the joke. Eileen laughed as well.

“The moral of the story is…” continued future Hermione. “If it gets too dangerous, or something goes way too wrong, if any of us die… Please come back home. Back to us. And I wanted the three of you to know that because Eileen may want to stay for longer than she should. I’m counting that at least one of us will make sure she comes back home. Probably me.” Then she mouthed, pointing at Snape with her thumb: _He’s the overindulgent parent_.

Overindulgent was not a word Hermione would ever use to describe Snape, who just rolled his eyes in the video, though his smirk denounced he couldn’t deny that claim.

It just… Couldn’t be true.

“With that out of the way, I suppose what is left for us to do in this video is to prove this all actually happened to us. That we got together, got married, had a child…” future Snape said, to then add in a lower tone: “Not necessarily in that order. What happened is that Hermione and I, you two, became friends. Or friendly. Or otherwise interested in each other’s wellbeing. After the war, we didn’t speak for years, but then I… I reached out. I wanted to see how Hermione was doing and…”

In the middle of his speech, he turned his eyes to the woman sitting beside him — couldn’t be me, Hermione thought — and he paused.

“And got her pregnant a month later.” Eileen said. “Classy, dad.”

The answer came in unison:

“ _What?!_ ”

“Isn’t that the part of the video where Eileen blurts out I got pregnant a month after you reached out to me?”

“I think it is.”

Future Hermione held back a guilty smirk.

“In my defense, I feared the fabric of time-space would rip apart if Eileen wasn’t conceived in time to be fifteen in 2019. And I already knew it was going to work out. Cue a montage of the least embarrassing pictures I could find of our future life.”

The screen was taken over by a picture of a much younger Snape and Hermione sat a fancy dinner table: Snape was full out laughing at something Hermione had just said.

“This is our wedding dinner. We eloped, of course. Severus doesn’t like parties and most of all, hates cameras. My mom took this picture of us, though. I was already pregnant, naturally, not that you can see.”

The picture gave place to another, of just future Hermione, with a big belly in a tiny bikini sitting at a beach, smiling to the camera in her big hat and sunglasses.

“This is our honeymoon. Got some strange looks,” this time it was Snape speaking. “I’m not sure if it’s because I look ancient or because no one believed I could have a wife this pretty. Take your pick. And then Eileen was born…”

The next photos showed up in rapid succession. Hermione in a hospital room, giving a thumbs up with a newborn on her chest. Snape, sitting at the rocking chair of the same hospital room, feeding Eileen with a bottle.

Eileen giving her first steps with Snape’s help. Hermione amusing little Eileen in a kiddie pool somewhere. Snape and Eileen napping together. A failed science project. A Mother’s day presentation. All the common experiences of a happy young girl growing up with two loving parents.

Hermione and Snape sitting at the couch appeared again.

“It’s true.” said she. “It happened and… We can’t be sure if it will close in a perfect loop or if Eileen will end up creating an alternate reality where she wasn’t born, but either way, she’s there, she can help end this war and… Sappy parting words from your mother, Eileen: I love you, sweetie.”

“Please come back in one piece.” Snape pleaded. “And past me may be prickly, but I’ve loved you from the moment we first met. Which… I may be currently denying, sitting beside you right now.”

“Good luck, baby.”

With that, future Hermione stood up and stopped recording.

“Holy shit!” Eileen exclaimed. “Everything makes sense now. You know, when I first did the math about mom getting pregnant a month after when you said you started dating, you two said that you knew it’d be fine. I thought it was the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, but… You _knew_ it’d be fine. You knew you’d be happily married for fifteen years, at least.”

Present Hermione stared at the phone’s screen without reaction. Her mind clutched to the most trivial question:

“But what about Ron?”

Eileen snorted.

“Well, future you told me that deep down you always knew you and Ron weren’t meant to be forever. For one, you’d be very resentful to give up on your career to stay at home and Ron wouldn’t do it for you like dad did.”

To which Snape promptly exclaimed:

“I did _what_?”


	6. Chapter 6

Hermione couldn’t keep still yet again.

Her future self was right in making a video, otherwise she’d never believe any of Eileen’s claims. It was undeniable, with the way Snape softly stroked Hermione’s arm with his fingertips, or how she kept touching his knee while she spoke; his adoring, doting gaze and her easy familiarity with him.

They were, indeed, disgustingly married.

And Eileen was indeed their child.

For the time being, though, neither were able to look each other in the face. Eileen was as far away from happening as humanly possible.

“Is there a chance this won’t happen?” Hermione asked Eileen, who leaned back on the couch, entwining her fingers on top of her stomach.

“Well… You gave me tons of reading material when you finally allowed me to get a time-turner for school. I hope you don’t think you let your daughter go back in time to a war zone without some fight. But I didn’t know this would happen, so I insisted. Either way, it was about the nature of time. No one knows for sure what it is, however the most popular theory in 2019 is that we experience time as a linear thing, but it is, in fact, a web of alternate realities stacked upon each other, starting out from a single reality that came to be at, say, big bang.”

“So every time something can go one way or the other, two realities are created. If you flip a coin, there will be a reality for when it’s head, and for when it’s tails. In a case like mine, I suppose I can either close the loop and you end up together, and I am born, and I come back, or… A reality where I wasn’t born will be created. Which is why, for example, time-travelers vanish. They mess with something in the past and create a new future, so they can’t return to their original one. In short… No, the fabric of time and space won’t rip itself apart if I’m not born.”

Snape sighed in relief.

“You should have said that first thing.” he chided with almost no annoyance.

“I don’t think you were in condition to understand all of that when I came to you and that is a _lot_ of words for me to say twice.”

Hermione pursed her lips and turned on her heels to face the wall and not them. Future Snape wasn’t kidding when he said he loved Eileen from the first moment; not that he was affectionate with her yet, though he treated her with a kindness she didn’t think possible of him to display.

Who was Severus Snape, really?

Would she like him if she knew?

And at least one thing in the video was already true: Ron wasn’t the one.

She turned on her heels again, though she looked at everywhere but him when she asked:

“How on Earth have you been a double agent all this time? Nearly two decades? That must be since the First Wizardry War! Don’t tell me… You defected out of the kindness on your heart.”

Eileen snorted.

“No, he didn’t.”

“Eileen.” he warned, blanching.

“I’m not going to _say_ anything.” Eileen retorted. “I’m just saying, the initial reason was a bit sketchy… But it’s your tale to tell. At least at some point between now and 2019 you do tell mom about it out of your own initiative.”

Hermione faced away from them again. It was when Snape spoke:

“Wouldn’t it be better if I came back later to speak about what truly matters here? The horcruxes? I assume someone needs to break the news for Potter and Weasley.”

“It’d be better, yes.”

“Eileen is staying with me.”

It was time for Hermione to snort. She spun around again.

“No, she’s not. Are you _insane_?”

She caught him glancing at Eileen for a moment — for all her easygoingness with the situation, she wasn’t happy at all to see them argue — and then he suggested: “Could we discuss this, quietly, in the kitchen?”

“Fine.”

Though the least thing she wanted was to be alone in a room with him.

But…

He had more tact that she gave him credit for.

She followed him into the kitchen and took a deep breath while he closed the door behind himself.

“Where are you keeping her? You live at Hogwarts!”

“I do own a house, Granger. Or do you think I live at my workplace all year round?” Snape retorted, back to his usual self. “And as a Headmaster I can return to sleep at home if I want to. I’d rather not, because I’m the only one who can keep the Carrows in check. However, keeping Eileen safe seems to be the most important thing in the long run.”

“What a joke. You haven’t been keeping the Carrows in check.”

“Don’t speak about what you know nothing about!” Snape seethed. “Just because I don’t yell everything I do at the rooftops to receive a pat on the back, it doesn’t mean I’m not doing _anything_. But Dumbledore told me to stay put. There is only so much I can do while retaining my cover. Do you think I don’t know what I’m doing isn’t nearly enough?”

At the very least, though, he said all of that without raising his voice or even looking at her too much.

“Why do you want to keep her so badly?”

“Because she’s not safe here. Not in general, and not with Weasley and Potter.”

“Oh. Are you saying they might give her a hard time because of who her father is?”

Snape fizzled in anger, and she thought he might start yelling at her, finally, but his anger left him almost as soon as it came.

“You fancy yourself to be so smart. Yet even after knowing where I’ve been standing all this time, you can’t figure out the things I had to do in order to keep my cover. Dumbledore saved my neck on the Wizengamot trials of the First War, Granger. Lucius Malfoy was watching me this whole time. I needed something to back up my claims of loyalty, even if it is just being a petty, vindictive asshole. Which I am, granted, but not to the extent that you think.”


	7. Chapter 7

Severus didn’t know how much he needed to say those words until they were out. The confession lifted off the weight of his chest so quickly that he got winded and needed to sit down. He picked up a chair and dropped onto it, elbows on his knees, head on his hands.

Although he much prided himself for not needing pats in the back, keeping it together became harder and harder since Dumbledore’s death. Without at least him to acknowledge Severus’ struggles — and, yes, sometimes dispense a pat on the back —, Severus’ sanity slipped.

Granger said nothing for quite a while.

“So are you telling me you don’t _hate_ Harry?”

“Why the fuck would I?” Severus replied, no filter on his tongue. “He didn’t even _meet_ his father. In my situation, though, I greatly benefit from everyone thinking I’d hand him over to the Dark Lord if I find a way.”

“Oh.”  

As he regained control over himself, he started to become acutely aware how vulnerable he had just become.

To Granger, of all people.

No doubt that whoever that Severus Snape was, he was deeply, madly in love with that Hermione Granger, but… It couldn’t be. However idyllic his supposed future life looked like, all he could feel as he watched the video was that it felt… Wrong.

And not just because Hermione Granger was, at the present time, an annoying teenager.

She wasn’t Lily.

“Okay,” said Granger.

“Okay _what_?”

“You can take Eileen, but you’ll have to leave your address with me so I can check up on her. And she will spend the mornings here in Grimmauld Place. I don’t like the thought of leaving her alone. Your house isn’t safe either, is it?”

Severus appreciated the return to safer waters. He wasn’t the only one uncomfortable with his sudden vulnerability…

“Nowhere is. By the way, tomorrow morning you should take her to get clothes. She has only her Hogwarts’ uniform, as far as I can tell. I’ll drop her off before I go to Hogwarts and by then I do hope you have spoken to Weasley and Potter about Eileen and who she is.”

Granger scrunched her nose at the thought of telling her friends who Eileen was. And Severus wasn’t too happy about it, either. If at least Eileen had been adopted, she wouldn’t look so much like the living evidence that at some point he and Granger had sex.

 _Somehow_.

Granger and Eileen might as well be the same age to Severus and just the thought churned his stomach.

“Of course.” Granger said.

“Then I should leave before they wake up.” Severus replied and stood to head towards the living room, where Eileen awaited studying the few tomes by a shelf in there.

“So.” she said, way less chipper than fifteen minutes ago. “Have the terms of my shared custody been discussed?”

Eileen knew her parents didn’t start out liking each other, but it was clear she did not understand how much.

“Professor Snape thinks it’s for the best if you stay with him during the nights, which implies you’ll sleep at his house. Is that okay by you?” As Granger spoke, she approached Eileen for the first time. “You can sleep here if you prefer. I… I’ll find a way to deal with Harry and Ron. You are welcome to stay.”

Granger tucked away a lock of Eileen’s hair, studying the girl with growing affection in her gaze.

Severus and Granger had one thing in common: they fell in love with Eileen at first sight. Perhaps he thought marrying Granger was all wrong, but the feeling didn’t extend to his could-be daughter. He no longer could imagine having a child who wasn’t like Eileen.

“Whichever is fine by me. He’s… My dad.”

Granger pursed her lips as if she was about to say something, then she changed her mind and her expression softened. She caught a coin in her pocket and handed it to Eileen.

“Use this to get in touch with me. There is a Prothean charm in it. You can’t apparate, can you? If your _dad_ had to bring you here?”

“I really can’t.”

“Use this, and I’ll come get you right away.”

While they talked, Severus hunted down a quill — Hermione had brought writing materials to entertain herself — and scribbled his address on a piece of paper. He approached them and handed it to Granger, with a growing sense of urgency. They had been on Grimmauld Place for too long.

“We should leave.” he warned.

Eileen and Granger nodded in unison, the same curt nod of acquiescence. And they each laughed a bit when they noticed.

“Bye mom. Can I have a hug?”

“Sure.” Granger replied.

Her arms opened to welcome Eileen, though she wasn’t expecting to be picked up from the ground and kissed on the cheek. Her offspring outgrew her and not by just a bit.

With that, Eileen hopped to Severus’ side, who was already walking out of the living room. She seemed a little more upbeat, with a smile on her face, but still it couldn’t be easy to her. And it wouldn’t get any easier.

Once they were out of the living room, leaving Granger behind, Severus extended his hand so Eileen could hold it.

“Don’t tell mom, but I’m happy I’m sleeping over at your house, because otherwise I’d have to go to bed at a reasonable time and, Merlin forbid, eat my vegetables.”

Severus realized his fridge was empty. His whole kitchen was wiped out because he’d set out to live at Hogwarts during term. And it was late in the evening.

And he couldn’t take Eileen to have a proper meal at a restaurant because of her clothes.

He sighed minutely as he opened the front door to Grimmauld Place.

As a teacher, he complained quite a bit to himself about parents who spoiled their children and created little monsters by abiding to their every whim. But he was completely at a loss, so he asked:

“What do you eat that can be delivered to my house?”

“Pizza!” A pause. “Oh, you can’t have dairy. Well, Chinese, then.”


	8. Chapter 8

Severus was so preoccupied with getting Eileen to safety that he didn’t realize the implications of her sleeping over at his house. First of all, his neighborhood should be the worst of all United Kingdom.  

Second, his house wasn’t teenager-proof and not teenager-ready. He didn’t have a guest bedroom; Eileen needed pajamas, a toothbrush, other personal toiletries and Merlin knew what else, none of which he had, for he didn’t receive many guests to stay overnight.

Not to mention his terrible selection of books piled up all around the living room, which, of course, Eileen went to check first thing, letting go of his hand.

“Eileen, these books are not—”

“Suitable for me, I know.” Eileen said, rolling her eyes. “I just want to read the titles. I think you took all of those to our house. Of course, most of them are warded, and I can’t take them off the shelves. Between us, though, I could learn how to undo the wards if I _really_ wanted to.”

Severus had to sit down for a moment, on his armchair, as Eileen made a tour around the room. It was… Too much, to see her in his house, and so comfortable, too.

“Have you ever been here?” he asked.

“Nope. When mom got pregnant, you two bought a house and moved into it before I was even born. And I have to say I was curious about this place. It is well-known you’ve lived here until you married a certain Hermione Granger after so politely getting her pregnant after a whole month of dating.”

The details just made it all worse.

A _month_?

And he must have married her within six months of that, given the size of her belly in the honeymoon picture. And bought a house, to boot.

No way.

“I’m sorry, but that is not happening. Not in this timeline, anyway.”

She turned to him.

“Oh, I remain optimistic. We can’t be sure if the loop will close until it does a couple decades from now, however… This must be the correct starting point. You _are_ the Severus Snape that will be my dad. And the Hermione Granger I just met _is_ the Hermione Granger that will be my mom. If it doesn’t happen, it’ll be a sad twist of fate. Because as far as I’m aware — and I’m aware of a _lot_ —, you two are a perfect fit. Well, as perfect as two people can be for one another.”

Severus felt nauseated.

“Could you please stop speaking about the future?”

“Okay.” Eileen said, softly. “I’m sorry.”

He supposed it was a good thing that bringing Eileen to his house represented a handful of minor issues to solve, because he needed something to take his mind off how Eileen came to be. He could never take his mind off who she was, of course, but at least he wanted not to think too much about the circumstances.

She was a resourceful little witch, though, Severus had to give her that: in the time that it took for him to order dinner, she had already made a spoon into a toothbrush, the desk in his study into a bed frame and a bunch of books into a mattress.

Or that was what Severus assumed. He saw her transfiguring the spoon, then overheard her light feet going up the stairs, but couldn’t interrupt the phone call to chase after her. Next thing he knew, his desk was gone, and some of his books too, but there was a bed and a naked mattress.

And there was Eileen, picking up a heavy tome, tapping it with her wand, and making it turn into a fluffy pillow.

“Don’t worry, I’ll turn those back. For one, I’m pretty sure I saw some of those at home. Besides, I got an O in my Transfiguration OWLs.” she babbled as she tossed the pillow onto the bed and sat on the mattress.

Severus pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Help yourself. I’ll be downstairs.”

He needed a drink. He found a bottle of firewhiskey in the liquor cabinet, popped off the lid and took three large sips. Then he returned the bottle to its place and dropped onto his armchair. He couldn’t help his knee jerk reaction of deep discomfort at the sight of someone going through his belongings and yet…

A hidden truth within him was that he had always wanted to be a father. The most obvious reaction after growing up in a dysfunctional family would be to not want to have a family for oneself. In his case, though, he wanted to make things right, somehow. Be the father his own father _wasn’t_.

He just thought he’d never be one and there was no point in wishing for something he couldn’t have — somehow that train of thought never applied to Lily.

But now… There was Eileen.

And he supposed daughters went through their father’s things, if their relationship wasn’t fucked up.

When the food arrived, Eileen came downstairs as if summoned, showered, and in a set of _his_ pajamas, the pants rolled up to her calves. She must have noticed his uneasiness, because she said, as she took the food from his hands:

“You better get used to it. Mom and I never leave your part of the wardrobe alone.”

Eileen set the food onto the center table, plopped onto the couch, and started helping herself.

Severus stood without reaction for a moment. Still, he gathered the courage to sit down beside her and eat, as well. He wanted to roll up the sleeves of his shirt — the frock coat had to be gone for him to get the door —, but he chose not to. He didn’t want Eileen to see the Dark Mark.

She decided to give him a break from relaying shocking news from his supposed future and so they ate in perfect silence. When she was done, she gathered her own empty boxes, vanished them and stood up.

To then give Severus a kiss on his forehead and say:

“Good night. Love you, dad.”

And then she went up the stairs to sleep, leaving Severus alone to melt into a puddle.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey peeps! I'm sorry I've been getting back at the comments at a snail's pace. I can't be on here too much, hence the weekly -- and not daily -- updates, but I do read everything and appreciate it more than I can put into words! Thank you!!


	9. Chapter 9

How on Earth was Hermione supposed to break the news to Harry and Ron?

She sat. She paced about. She cracked her knuckles.

She almost didn’t believe in any of it herself.

Having a daughter with Snape? The way it happened — or would happen — too. From not being in touch to married within six or seven months. But she couldn’t argue with a video full of indisputable evidence.

Oh, the way the Snape in the video looked at Hermione. She never thought he could be so tender, so adoring. And present Snape _thought_ she didn’t see him offering his hand to Eileen and asking what she wanted to order for dinner.

No doubt that the Severus Snape in the video was the same Severus Snape that broke down in front of her.

Hermione sighed.

Maybe… Maybe if Harry and Ron got a chance to see for themselves that Snape was a man very different from the persona he built for himself to keep his cover… Maybe then the news wouldn’t be so shocking.

Maybe they didn’t need to know the whole truth.

That thought made Hermione spring into action, finally. It was almost time for Harry to come and substitute her in watching the front door, and she needed to sleep before Eileen came to Grimmauld Place. She wouldn’t leave the girl alone with Harry and Ron.

Hermione didn’t think herself to be so motherly, however she couldn’t help feeling protective over Eileen. She marched into the room where Ron and Harry slept, lit up the ambient and pulled away their covers to get them to wake up.

“Harry, Ron. There is something important I need to tell you.”

Ron yawned.

“Is the place being stormed by Death Eaters?”

“Somewhat,” Hermione replied. “Professor Snape came here.”

“What?” Harry exclaimed, standing up wide awake with his wand ready to throw a hex.

“Harry, calm down. We… We got him all wrong. He’s been on our side all this time.”

“Snape? Professor Snape? The man who killed Dumbledore?”

God.

Hermione sat down in the mattress Harry had just emptied.

“Dumbledore asked Snape to do it because… Dumbledore was already dying. And any other Death Eater would have tortured him to get information, and would have gotten it, too. So he asked for a quick, painless death. Didn’t you wonder why Snape never gave the location of Grimmauld place to You-Know-Who? Didn’t you wonder how is it that we stayed hidden for so long with him being the person Dumbledore trusted the most?”

That got Harry and Ron to settle for a moment. Snape could have lied to her, but the facts didn’t. The facts were: the Order of the Phoenix would have been dead before it started had Snape truly been on Voldemort’s side.

Hermione kept going:

“He came because he is aware Dumbledore entrusted us with the horcrux hunt. And… He stumbled upon someone who can helps us. She knows where all the horcruxes are and how to get to them.”

“Bloody hell.” Ron exclaimed under his breath. “Who is this person? Did you see her? Don’t you think he may be lying through his teeth?”

“I… I don’t think he is.” Hermione replied. “The person is his daughter.”

“Snape has a _daughter_?!” Harry and Ron blurted out in perfect harmony, to then shudder.

Much like Hermione’s initial reaction. Who would sleep with _Snape_?

She, apparently, for fifteen years. And many more years to come, given the overall happy aura of the video.

“He will have a daughter. She… She’s from the future. She showed up here because her time-turner broke. She knows about the horcruxes and how to get to them because, by the time she went to Hogwarts, the war was already won. Her name is Eileen. He brought her here.”

“I’m going to pass out.” Harry said, sitting beside Hermione.

Ron had sat up in his own mattress, his freckles more evident against his whitened face.

“I still think he’s lying.”

“You’ll see for yourself. He’s coming tomorrow morning to drop her off, so she’ll be with us for the day. I have to take her shopping for clothes since she only has her Hogwarts’ uniform as of now.”

Harry blinked, and then looked at Hermione.

“Isn’t it better if she just… Stay with us for good? How does he treat her?”

“Harry, Professor Snape is not the person we thought. He never hated you and he wouldn’t have done everything he did if Lucius Malfoy hadn’t been breathing on his neck. He is not going to mistreat his daughter. I don’t think he’d even mistreat you or any of his students if he had a choice.”

“That can’t be right.”

“You’ll see tomorrow morning. I decided to tell you two now to give you time to prepare and, in case I’m still asleep, you’ll receive the girl well. Her name is Eileen.”

“I’m not going to believe any of this until then.” Ron said.

Hermione didn’t want to argue.

“You’ll see.”

Harry groaned, rubbed his sweaty palms on his pants and stood.

“I’ll go watch the door. You two rest.”

With that, Hermione and Ron were left alone. She bit her lower lip and went to change into pajamas. When she walked back in the room, Ron lifted his covers and patted the empty spot beside him.

Hesitant, Hermione obliged and went under the covers with him.

“This is crazy, Mione. From the future?”

“You know it’s possible. We’ve done it before. Not to this degree, but…”

Ron fell silent, and they stared each for a while.

Hermione swallowed dry. She wanted to rewind, go back to the times when she naively thought she and Ron were meant to be. How did she ever think that? He scooted closer to her and gave a tentative kiss on the curve of her neck.

He wanted her.

But he was not in love with her either.

Not like—

She shook her head and kissed Ron on the lips.

“Did you bring the… You know, the… Plastic things that go on my—”

“Condoms, Ronald. And yes, I did.”


	10. Chapter 10

Hermione waited for Professor Snape and Eileen right at the hallway like a predator waiting to spring a trap on its prey. Harry and Ron were up, eating at the kitchen; she didn’t want to take the risk of them meeting Eileen before she could warn the girl that she hadn’t been brave enough to tell the entire tale.

Great example of a Gryffindor.

Professor Snape didn’t even get to knock — Hermione opened the door as he had his fist raised. He lowered his fist.

“Hey, mom.” said Eileen. “You look terrible.”

“Well, how could I have a good night of sleep after all this?”

She wouldn’t have slept well even if Ron hadn’t taken a part of her sleeping hours. Snape agreed with a minute raise of his brows. He looked terrible himself, the dark circles under his eyes even more pronounced.

Still, he carried a different aura about him. Hermione couldn’t put her finger on what changed.

“I couldn’t tell them.” she said, eyes darting from Snape to Eileen. “I told them everything, except…” Her gaze landed on him, finally. “Except that she’s… _Our_ daughter. I told them she’s yours.”

“Don’t you think they’ll pick up on that omission quite fast, Granger?” Snape asked, making a wide gesture of his hand towards Hermione and Eileen, standing side by side.

“I’m not the only black woman in the world.” Hermione retorted. “And they aren’t the sharpest quills of the box, as you well know. They’ll never think that… That we…”

“Please don’t finish that sentence.” Eileen said. “Or I might throw up my breakfast.”

“I might throw up _my_ breakfast.” Snape echoed, and then he groaned. “Fine, Granger. I suppose the most important fact for them to know is that she’s mine. Or else I will look bad in insisting for a teenager girl to sleep at my house.”

They could agree on that.

Without that bit of information, it’d be hard to explain why Hermione would let Snape whisk Eileen away for the night.

“Well,” she said. “I suppose we’ll talk about the horcruxes when you come to get Eileen.”

“I suppose.”

He lingered for a moment. Eileen went to him to give him a tight hug — which he returned — and a peck on his cheek.

“Bye, dad.”

Hermione’s brows almost joined her hairline as she watched Snape return a _hug_ and let himself be kissed on the cheek by a girl that appeared at his doorstep the night before. A great reminder that she didn’t know him at all.

Though he caught her staring and she could swear his neck went pink.

“I gave some money to Eileen for her clothes.” he said, and with a turn of heels and a flourish of his cape, he left.

“Drama queen.” said Eileen under her breath.

Hermione closed the door with a smile, despite herself.

“So you’ve already eaten.”

“I can eat again.”

Eileen clearly had Snape’s metabolism. There was no way Hermione could have two breakfasts and still be rail thin. Well, there was no way for her chubby self to be rail-thin, period.

“I’m sorry I didn’t have the guts to tell Harry and Ron about… Everything. It’s complicated. Professor Snape was — _is_ — a very different person to us.”

“I know.” she replied. “And I guess I understand it better now. It’s fine. I will refrain from calling you mom. It’ll be weird, though. Can you imagine the utter betrayal I felt when I found out your name wasn’t mommy?”

Hermione snorted.

“I can guess. Come on, we’re all in the kitchen.”

Harry and Ron’s eyes were glued to Eileen as soon as she walked into the kitchen. She said nothing. They said nothing.

“Harry, Ron, this is Eileen.”

She gave a timid wave, almost hiding behind Hermione, though she could not do that with her height.

Hermione couldn’t help feeling endeared. Eileen had been boisterous and talkative so far; but that was because she’d been in touch only with her own parents.

“Eileen, this is Harry and Ron. Sit down, I’ve put down a plate for you.”

They didn’t have much food at all, actually. Hermione supposed she should take the opportunity of going to London for the day and buy some groceries now that there would be an extra person eating with them. At least during daytime.

“I expected someone… Paler.” Harry blurted as Eileen slipped to her spot, beside Hermione’s. “And, you know. With a bigger nose.”

“Eileen doesn’t have only Snape’s genes, Harry.”

“Genes? What’s genes?” Ron questioned.

“It’s nothing, Ron. So… For today I’ll take Eileen out to get some clothes and other necessities for her. Will you two be fine by yourselves here?”

“Can’t Snape take her?”

“He has to be at Hogwarts. He’s trying his best to keep the Carrows in check, and the longer he stays away from Hogwarts, the worse it will be. When he comes pick Eileen up, we’ll talk about the horcruxes.”

Funny how she went from wanting him dead to explaining his actions in his behalf in less than twenty-four hours.

“Did we get the horcruxes?” Harry asked to Eileen. “Did we win?”

Eileen nodded.

“Yes, we win. I didn’t think I’d be here to see it all for myself, though. I didn’t think it’d be a _we_.”

Besides being shy, something else about Eileen was off upon speaking to Harry. Hermione pressed her lips together.

“Speaking of the future,” Ron said, leaning forward on the table. “Who the hell is your mother?”

“Dad doesn’t even know her yet.” was the reply.

That wasn’t even a lie. Indeed Professor Snape and Hermione didn’t know each other… Yet.

“Ron, please be careful with the questions.” she chided.

She didn’t want to think of the fit he’d throw if he figured out, or if Eileen slipped, or if she slipped. But she didn’t know what was worse: ending things, and making it seem like something was going on between her and Snape already, or not ending things.

Ron groaned and returned to his original laidback position.

Hermione didn’t have the stomach to finish eating her breakfast, and Eileen hadn’t served herself with anything. The girl said to her:

“I already ate. We can go now if you’re done.”

Though the request had a second meaning to it. Despite not being quite finished, Hermione left the kitchen with Eileen at her heels.

“I think we need to find a way to make some of my clothes fit you so we can leave.”

“Mom,” Eileen said in a whisper once they were up the stairs. “Want to know another bit of _complicated_ information?”

“I guess I’ll have to know.”

“Uncle Harry is a horcrux.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmao some of you already figured Ron is going to be a bit of a problem here 
> 
> By the way, I'm still behind on my inbox, but ofc I'm reading the comments and I'm having the time of my life hahaha


	11. Chapter 11

“Harry is an horcrux,” said Hermione, fumbling through her clothes. “Harry is an horcrux.”

That fact itself didn’t come off as shocking. The real surprise was how she didn’t notice it sooner. And, although Eileen had no tact whatsoever, one thing soothed Hermione: Uncle Harry.

Harry lived.

Did he?

“Does he live?”

“Yes, he does. I have a picture with him from last week. Well, last week, twenty-two years from now.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket, and sighed. “I’m just going to turn this off. There is no service here anyway. And no charger either.”

Eileen approached Hermione and showed a picture inside a Hogwarts’ classroom. Harry was forty, dressed in a light brown suit, hugging Eileen with fatherly affection.

“Technically he’s Professor Potter to me. He teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts. Fitting for the guy who survived a Killing Curse two times.”

“Excuse me?” Hermione asked, softly.

“Yeah. Well, if we want to be pedantic, he didn’t survive the second time. He died, but then came back. Since he’s an horcrux, there are two souls inside him. His soul and a piece of You-Know-Who’s.”

“So he comes back because he has two souls. Technically.”

“Exactly.”

Hermione picked a light green sweater. In her, it was oversized, but it should fit Eileen’s frame well enough. Except for being baggy. She gave it to the girl.

“When?”

“The final battle. I wouldn’t want to lose this edge if I were him. There are a lot of people out to get his head, right now.” Eileen paused, then stammered: “I’m not concerned with Uncle Harry. He’s safe. He’ll be fine. I’m more worried about Dad, really.”

“Is he going to…?”

“Land the killing blow? I’m not sure. But I am sure he will be upset when he learns of this. And I always say the wrong things. I’ll make it worse.”

Eileen got rid of her outer robes and started stripping down as Hermione went over her bottoms to find at least one pair of pants that would work. It would have to be leggings.

“You won’t make it worse, Eileen. He loves you already.” She didn’t want to think about the implications of that. “And what would he be upset about?”

“How would you feel if the person you’ve been protecting for eighteen years was destined to die? He’s going to be upset, and he doesn’t open up to me. He tells me things when they don’t bother him anymore. He never says something to me if there is a thorn on his side. Because I’m his daughter and apparently I can’t help with anything ever.”

The way Eileen phrased it was interesting.

“Isn’t protecting Harry the main objective of everyone in the Order of the Phoenix?”

Eileen put on the leggings.

“No. The objective of the Order of the Phoenix is to win the war. There is a clear difference here. You-Know-Who can’t die as long as Uncle Harry lives. Can you see the issue? Dumbledore has been raising Harry as a pig for slaughter, mom. Dad’s words.”

“And why would Snape care for Harry that much?”

“Caring is a strong term.” Eileen replied. “But… He does want to see Harry alive and well. I guess that’s more that Dumbledore can say for himself.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“I can’t. That’s for you to find out. Or figure out. It’s pretty obvious in hindsight.”

Hermione sighed and sat down on Harry’s mattress to catch her breath, and pace her thoughts. It’d be hard for Harry to learn Dumbledore didn’t care at all. For some reason, it’d be hard on Snape, too.

“Could you please tell Dad?” Eileen asked in a mutter, sitting beside her.

“I don’t think—”

“You’re the right person. Trust me. He’s going to be upset, and I won’t be able to help, but there is a chance that you can. And… He’s not going to yell at you or anything. He knows better than that now. And I mean _now_ , not twenty years ahead.”

Hermione swallowed dry. Eileen had Snape’s eye color. Who knew two bottomless pits could be so expressive?

“Okay, I will try to do that. Now, let us leave before you drop another bombshell on my head.”

“That’s all for now. Really.”

Eileen stood up, and offered a hand for Hermione to get on her feet as well. Hand in hand they went out of Grimmauld Place, and into an alley they could apparate them away to London. Muggle London, which was the safest choice for them. They’d be able to blend in with the crowd.

“Where do you want to go for clothes?” asked Hermione.

“Thrift stores. For some reason, 80s fashion is trendy in 2019. Not that I care for that, though I do like high-waisted pants. Besides, it’s cheaper.”

The last comment set Hermione off. Good thing she brought extra money with her in case Eileen needed to spend more than what Professor Snape had given her.

She soon learned there was no reason to fret.

Eileen maneuvered her into a seedy shop nearby and went fishing for clothes. Which wasn’t hard: in 1997, clothes from the 80s crowded the rakes. Hermione found a chair to sit while Eileen studied, analyzed and even sniffed the clothes. By the end of half-an-hour, she had put together almost an entire wardrobe.

And then she went to pay for all of that.

Hermione caught the sight of the thousand muggle pounds in her pocket.

“You’re not going to spend a thousand pounds in one day just with clothes.” She chided to Eileen as soon as they walked out.

The response was a careless laugh.

“I know, mom. I tried to argue about it, and dad didn’t have it because not only he is stubborn as fuck, he also has no clue how much a teenage girl spends on clothes.”

“And does he let you swear too while he’s at it?”

“Oh, we had a swear jar when I was nine. But then he started going bankrupt, so that didn’t last very long.”

“Snape is going to spoil you rotten.”

“You have common sense enough for the both of you, worry not, mother. I’m not always going to like it, but I’ll appreciate it when I’m older.” Eileen passed an arm around Hermione’s neck, kissed her cheek. “And I love you always, mom. Even though you make me eat vegetables.”

Eileen captured her just as swiftly as she had bewitched Snape.


	12. Chapter 12

Hermione _really_ didn’t want to do it.

Moreso because she didn’t know the ground beneath her feet. Sure, Snape wasn’t an asshole to the extent she initially thought; but how terrible could it be for him to learn Harry would have to die?

He couldn’t have faked anger management issues so well for such a long time unless there was a bottom of truth to them.

Her stomach churned as she went to get the door for him.

“Did something happen?” he asked right away. “Is Eileen okay?”

“Nothing happened. She’s okay. We went shopping and we got her everything she needed.” Which would need to be discussed after. “We need to talk. Could you please come upstairs?”

Hermione didn’t wait for an answer. She went for the stairs and heard his steps trailing behind her, his presence a dark shadow. She led him to the most far away room of Grimmauld Place — Harry and Ron didn’t know anything yet, and frankly, she didn’t want them to know Snape was intercepted before arriving, either.

“I assume this has to do with whatever got you scared to death.”

At that point in time, she was more scared of Snape than of the fact Harry would have to die for Voldemort to be defeated.

Hermione swallowed dry as Snape not so patiently waited for her to gather the courage to say what she wanted to say. She took a deep breath.

“Harry is an horcrux.”

Snape froze.

Then he blinked.

Behind his eyes, Hermione saw her own train of thought. How did he not realize it sooner? He turned his back on her and marched to the farthest corner of the room, beside a heavy shelf.

“That lying son of a bitch!” he exclaimed and kicked the shelf so hard a few books fell with heavy thuds.

Rage emanated from him like heatwaves from an atomic explosion. Hermione took a step back. Then another. What had she done? A floorboard made a noise under her feet and Snape acknowledged her presence, finally.

His rage quieted.

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice gentle as a caress. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

With that, he slipped to the nearest sitting surface, a divan for leisure reading. He rubbed his hands on his thighs. He was _seething_ , possessed, but he kept it on a leash, something he seemed unable to do for as long as Hermione knew him.

“Who lied to you?” she asked. “Dumbledore?”

Snape didn’t answer the question. He turned his gaze to her, too enraged to remember being awkward in her presence.

“Did Dumbledore tell you this?”

“No.” Of course not. “It was Eileen. She asked me to tell you.”

“You didn’t do much of a better job that she does at breaking terrible news.”

“Well, she had to get that from someone.”

A long, stretched out silence passed by. Hermione couldn’t make sense of Snape’s wrath. Though that would have to be thought about later. She didn’t tell him the whole story yet.

“Harry doesn’t have to die. He… It’s complicated. In the future Eileen came from, Harry survives a Killing Curse again. Since he’s an horcrux, he has two souls. The Curse will destroy the horcrux without destroying him in the process.” A sigh. “He’s going to die, sir. But he won’t stay dead.”

Snape’s terrible mood simmered down significantly after this despite the clumsy way Hermione put it.

“Dumbledore didn’t know that before he died, however. So he told no one. And we’d be running a fool’s errand this entire time if it weren’t for Eileen.”

“Yes.”

“Does Potter know of this already?”

“No.”

“Then we won’t tell him.”

“What?” Hermione exclaimed. “He has the right to know!”

“No, he doesn’t. Not when he has a direct link to the Dark Lord’s mind inside him. Otherwise, the Dark Lord and all the Death Eaters will know that they’ll have to kill him twice.”

“You could resume the Occlumency lessons. Because… He knows where you stand now. Isn’t it dangerous for _you_ to have Harry not know how to protect his mind and close the bridge between him and You-Know-Who? He already knows too much. We all know too much. We all need to learn Occlumency.”

“Shit.” Snape said under his breath. “ _Shit_.”

He went from furious to distressed in the drop of a hat. Hermione could see that he was thinner than he used to be, and comparing with his future self from the video, he looked sickly, washed out. The war was wearing him down to the bone.

That would be one more thing on his plate.

“I… I can try to teach myself and then teach Harry and Ron. If… If you borrow reading materials, I can find a way. You learned Occlumency by yourself, didn’t you?”

“Though I wasn’t in any particular rush at the time.”

“I will have to try. You’re doing enough already.”

“There’s nothing I can do that will be enough, Granger,” he replied, softly.

Hermione crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“Well, I don’t care what you think. I’m not going to let you work yourself to the ground. I assume you already have quite a busy schedule trying to keep the Carrows away from the students, and now with Eileen, and the horcruxes, and everything… That’s too much. You’re going to break.”

Snape stood and within a heartbeat he stood right in front of her, unbuttoning his sleeve. The Dark Mark was pitch black against his pale skin.

“Do you see this, Granger? Look at it. I’m not doing all of this because I’m just too kind. I was a Death Eater. I was loyal to the Dark Lord. I’ve done unspeakable, cruel things and I didn’t quite stop after defecting. I deserve working myself into a paste and things far, _far_ beyond it, too.”

If he was stubborn, then so was she.

“Like I said, sir, I don’t care about what you think. Besides… There’s Eileen to worry about now. She looks up to you and loves you, and you need to have enough left in you to take good care of her.”

Ah, that argument got through him.

He buttoned his sleeve.

“I’ll teach you. You’ll teach Potter and Weasley.”

“And Eileen.”

“If Eileen gets caught, I’m not going to wait around long enough for her to be questioned by the Dark Lord. But if she wants to learn, then… I suppose you can teach her, too.”

“Okay.” Hermione said, with a nod, realizing with some degree of dread that Eileen had been right about her being the best person to speak to Snape.


	13. Chapter 13

Severus breathed out and slipped back into the divan.

He didn’t know either he wanted to slap Granger or hug her. He couldn’t stomach the first and was afraid of how he’d feel with the second.

She saw his Dark Mark and was still standing there.  

“Sir, are you alright?”

“What do you think, Granger?” he replied with a defeated snarl. “Are _you_ alright with this entire situation?”

Granger stammered and sat down as well, as far away from him as she could. Then she looked around in the pocket of her jeans and threw five hundred pounds on his lap.

“A _thousand_ pounds? _Really_? That was way too much money!”

Severus couldn’t help blushing with the accusation. He had no clue as to how much money Eileen would need, however she had told him it was too much and he didn’t want to listen.

“How do you even have that much just lying around?” Granger pressed.

“In case I need to flee.”

Dumbledore insisted on it. Not that Severus would _actually_ flee. If it came down to that, he’d accept his end. Perhaps he’d even look forward to it.

He looked at the money and threw it right back at Granger.

“You keep it.”

“I’m not—”

“You’re keeping it. How are you buying food? How are you buying anything?”

“I scrapped my savings.” she replied at a small voice.

“Granger, I’m receiving a Headmaster’s salary and barely spend money on anything.”

He could see that the girl was utterly shocked to figure the video was right about him being overindulgent. It wouldn’t be a surprise if she knew how far he’d go, the things he’d do, for someone he loved.

And Granger had been kinder to him than she realized, too. So he didn’t hate her.

As such, he couldn’t help himself. He wanted her to comfortable, and to have one less thing to worry about.

“Take it, Granger. Think of it this way: Eileen is going to be one more mouth to feed.”

She raised a brow and pocketed the money.

“How many more times do you think using the Eileen card to win arguments will work?”

“It’s a compelling argument,” Severus replied.

“You really like her, don’t you?”

“You don’t?”

They said nothing, for a while. The door opened an inch and the girl herself stuck her head in.

“Is everything good?”

“Everything’s good, Eileen.” Granger said. “Your dad had a bit of a temper tantrum but he’s fine now.”

Temper tantrum wouldn’t _begin_ to cover it. Severus thought he could trust Dumbledore. At least it made him feel a bit better about the fact he was the reason the old man laid cold in the earth.

Eileen came into the room, full-body this time, and sat neatly between Severus and Granger.  

“So. About the horcruxes. Am I supposed to tell Harry, the Horcrux?”

“No.” Severus replied. “I want to wait a week or two until he is at least a bit more proficient in Occlumency.”

“But the Death Eaters will get to us within that time!” Granger protested.

“I will tell the Dark Lord I came to check, and you are no longer here. And if it’s necessary… I suppose my house is a safe enough choice.”

The only person excited at that prospect was Eileen.

Severus continued:

“I know where the Gryffindor’s sword is. I can bring it here so you can destroy the locket. As to the others… We should discuss them with Potter and Weasley present.”

“Okay,” Eileen agreed and took the lead out of the room.

Her fluffy curls bounced as she walked. Like Granger’s did.

“You should tell them.” Severus said to Granger. “They’ll reach the right conclusion soon enough.”

“I don’t want to open that can of worms. Not when I’m stranded with… Ron.”

Nothing more was said about the subject. Granger came up with something to do in her room and stayed behind; the three of them arriving together would make it that much more obvious. And Eileen came to walk a pace behind Severus.

“They didn’t say anything to you, did they?”

“They wouldn’t dare. Mom would skin them alive. Harry and Ron are in the dining room, playing chess.”

Severus headed there and found a comfortable enough place to sit, far from Harry and Ron, close to the door. Eileen sat beside him.

“Where is Hermione?” asked Weasley as he put away the chessboard.

Potter didn’t say anything. He watched, way too quiet for Severus’ taste.

“I wouldn’t know,” Severus replied. “I just arrived.”

“I’m here,” Granger said, barging in, and went to sit at the opposite corner.

All the eyes turned to Eileen, who sunk a bit on her chair. Severus gave her a reassuring nod to get her to start speaking.

“So,” she started. “The horcruxes and how we will get to them. There are… Six. The diary and the ring are already destroyed. The locket is here, and dad knows where the Gryffindor’s sword is, so it can be destroyed soon enough. The three left are Helga Hufflepuff’s cup, Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem, and Nagini. The diadem is at Hogwarts, so we’re good there. The thing is… The cup is at a vault. In Gringott’s. Bellatrix Lestrange’s vault.”

“What?!” Potter exclaimed. “Gringotts is impossible to break in!”

“It’s… Really not, though. And the important thing is not that we succeed at that. The important is that we try. Because then You-Know-Who will change the places of the horcruxes. He’ll ask _dad_ to hide the diadem, which is stupid of him. And the cup will go to Romania with the Malfoys, which is when we’ll get it.”

Severus would have to speak about the _we_. There was no way he’d allow her to take part in those things. Granger’s pursed lips were evidence that she was thinking the same thing.

“You know,” Eileen went on, more at ease. “That’s what never sat right with me. How did you guys figure where the cup was heading? Or that Nagini was hidden at the Malfoy Manor during the final battle? It was never explained how you figured it out. Now I know, it’s because I told you. And I know because dad told me. And dad knows because I told him in the past.”

“Please stop talking before I get a migraine,” pleaded Weasley.


	14. Chapter 14

There was a long moment of silence.

Potter broke it with the most pressing question:

“So what now?”

“Now…” Severus started, bracing himself for the backlash. “Now I’ll go fetch Gryffindor’s sword and bring it here. Besides… You three will have to learn Occlumency. The basics, at the very least. You, Potter, most of all. What I am doing to do, however, is teach Granger. Granger will teach you two.”

Weasley, of course, was the first to protest.

“Hermione? Why Hermione?”

“One of you is going to take thrice the time to comprehend the lessons. The other has no concept of privacy. Granger seems the most time-efficient, less nerve-wrecking option. And I mean that for both of us.”

“Where?” asked Potter, protective of his friend. “Here?”

“I suppose. I have to come here to pick up Eileen anyway. I’ll simply stay a while longer when coming to get her.”

Though he didn’t want to do that.

And Granger didn’t like the idea either.

“So Eileen is supposed to wait around for the lesson to be done? How long are Occlumency lessons?”

“It… Largely varies.”

“Isn’t it better for me just to drop her off and have the lesson then? This way Eileen can be tucked into her rightful bed at a decent time and the lessons can take as long as they need.”

They didn’t set that conversation up, but they might as well have.

In all honesty: Severus didn’t want to spend anymore time at Grimmauld Place than what he absolutely must. Smuggling the pensieve would be a problem, too. In between that and having a guest at his house for an hour or two, he’d much rather take the guest.

Though the suggestion of Granger going to his house for lessons instead couldn’t come from him, even if the thought had crossed his mind before she said it.

Potter pressed his lips together.

“This doesn’t sound like a good idea, Mione. You usually have pretty good ones, but this one isn’t one of them.”

She placed a hand on top of his.

“Harry, Eileen is safer at her father’s house than in here.”

“Would you, though?” Potter argued. “Not that I think he’ll kidnap you or sell you out to You-Know-Who, but… Professor Snape isn’t exactly a pleasure to have in class.”

Eileen tried to hold back a chuckle.

And failed at that.

Severus shot her a glare before saying:

“I understand Occlumency lessons are taxing and frankly this benefits me more than it does to any of you. I need you to learn Occlumency because I would prefer not to lose my cover in the case the worst happens and any Death Eaters other than myself get to you. Granger is safe with me, Potter. I will try my best to be gentle with her.”

That seemed to make the boy even more uneasy with the idea.

“See, Harry! I will be fine.” Granger said and her reassurance fell flat.

Weasley resigned himself to shoot daggers with his eyes to Severus. He didn’t like the idea of Severus whisking away his girlfriend every night.

“Besides…” Severus added, smooth. “My house is the only place available with a pensieve. It doesn’t seem ideal to potentially have access to every memory any of you have.”

The Weasley boy sunk in his chair, going as red as canned tomato sauce. Granger herself couldn’t blush as hard, though she cleared her throat and adjusted her position on her chair. Potter eyed them both and sighed, defeated.

“I suppose we can’t do anything without the bloody pensieve.”

“I’d rather not,” Weasley said at a small voice.

“Oh, _gross_.” Eileen exclaimed, despite herself.

Granger cleared her throat again.

“Will we begin tonight or tomorrow, sir?”

“Tomorrow,” Severus decided, and stood to leave without another word.

Eileen followed him out of the room and easily entwined her fingers with his. He looked at her, wondering if he hadn’t grossed her out too much. As for himself… Well. He taught at a school for twenty years.

He knew what teenagers who were lucky enough to date at that age were up to.

“I’m sorry about that, Eileen.”

“Well, it isn’t like I didn’t know mom dated Ron before dating you. Still, gross. I didn't need to know that."

Severus said nothing until they were walking down his house’s street, at a slower pace than the usual. He liked the feeling of Eileen holding his hand. She’d be gone soon enough, and he wanted to savor it while he could.

“I hope you know you aren’t going to be born in this timeline. I’m not your real father. I do promise you I’ll do my best to take care of you while you’re stuck here with me. And Granger. I’m sure she’ll look out for you, too.”

“This again?” Eileen retorted. “You _are_ my dad. You _are_ going to be my dad.”

He went silent again until they walked inside the living room and he closed the front door behind himself.

“I don’t think there is the slightest chance of anything happening between me and Granger in the future. I…” As pathetic as it sounded, he had to said it: “I have feelings for someone else.”

“Bullshit. You’re not in love with Lily anymore. She’s been dead for so long!”

“Yes, but—”

“Besides, how old was she when you last talked? How old is she in your memories?”

A pause.

“…Fifteen.”

“My age! Are you going to tell me you are _currently_ in love with a fifteen years old girl who’s been dead for seventeen years?”

Merlin, no. No way.

“You know what I think?” Eileen went on. “I think you’re holding on to that as an excuse. You think there is not a chance in hell mom would ever like you, not now and not in the future. You don’t want to fall in love alone again, whenever she is old enough for you. You don’t want to hope and be disappointed. But, dad… You and mom are _already_ getting along well. You two said to me it all just… Happened. So let it happen. Don’t fight it with your lame excuses that aren’t even true.”

Why would anyone with a daughter need a fucking therapist?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eileen sure is a mighty combination of two short-tempered parents


	15. Chapter 15

Hermione, contrary to what her expectations were, wasn’t nervous at all. Harry crawled up the walls at dinnertime, and Ron sulked at a corner, but she was just… Curious, really. Who was the man who fooled them for years?

There was no way he’d be as awful of a teacher as he pretended to be. Even moreso because the whole setup was a huge favor for him. So he wouldn’t have to wear himself out teaching unwilling students, so he could be at the comfort of his own home and so his daughter could go to bed at the right time and have her eight hours of sleep.

He’d remember that.

He said he’d be gentle, and Hermione believed his promise, because she saw with her own two eyes he could be soft, when he wanted to be.

The neighborhood was a surprise. It was muggle, built nearby a factory of some sorts, no doubt destined to the workers of such a business. The factory had polluted the stream close to his street. The chimneys still released smoke into the air, however some of the houses were left empty…

Hermione knew he was a half-blood, but she would never think he’d live in a muggle neighborhood, let alone such an unsavory one. He had the means to leave. Why didn’t he?

“He grew up here,” Eileen said, as they walked on the pavement on the way to his house.

“Really?”

“His father used to work at the factory.”

“Why didn’t he move out of this place?”

“Oh, he loves making himself miserable.”

Eileen took the lead up the steps to his door and knocked. The curtains of the window beside the front door were closed, but Hermione saw him getting up from an armchair through a tiny gap. The door opened and Eileen went in, dragging Hermione by the hand.

“Hello, progenitor.”

The two things Hermione noticed first were the smell of good food, and the Gryffindor’s sword lying on top of the center table in the living room — the room, by the way, was staked to the brim with books.

“I made dinner,” he said to Eileen as he closed the door behind Hermione, not acknowledging her presence. “After that, you’re going straight to bed.”

“Can’t I watch the lessons? Try to learn a bit?”

“I don’t want you to see that. They aren’t exactly… Easy to watch. And you need to sleep well.”

“I’m not a baby. I’m nearly mom’s age!” Eileen argued.

Snape pressed his lips together in an unpleased sneer.

“And it’s a shame she needs to be here learning this from me instead of having a full night of sleep, safe at her home.”

Not that Hermione had a home, anymore, but… She went to examine the books. Dark Arts, of course, with a hint of Potions here and there.

Eileen groaned, moreso out of her duty as stubborn teenage daughter than out of actual displeasure with the order. She had been yawning already, even before leaving Grimmauld Place. With that, she headed into the kitchen to eat, and Snape showed up at Hermione’s side.  

“There is nothing that will be of much interest to you in my personal collection.”

“You never know,” Hermione said. “Is there something I can do while Eileen is still down here?”

“I suppose you could put away the memories you don’t want me to see. The pensieve is over there.”

He gestured at a corner of the room and settled back into the armchair with a book. Hermione went to the pensieve. Putting away all the memories she wouldn’t like him to see would take about forever, but… She started taking them out.

Eileen finished eating, came to wish her a good night, went to say goodbye to her father, left to bed.

A couple moments later, Snape roused and raised a brow to Hermione when he realized… She was still taking memories out and placing them into the pensieve.

“For fuck’s sake. I didn’t mean every single little thing.”

“These are just the big things. And even then, I think I’m letting something pass.”

Snape sighed and went to his liquor cabinet to pour himself a generous shot of firewhiskey.

“While you finish, I suppose I’ll begin with the theory. Since I personally would prefer not to be here all night.” He took a sip and paced about as he spoke: “Legilimency isn’t as simple nor as easy as… Say, reading a book. A book has no will. The mind is such a powerful being it can hide memories, feelings and thoughts even from itself, if needed. Reading the mind of a skilled Occlumens is akin to reading a book that won’t open, or that will open only in the pages it wants.”

“Which is what you do to fool You-Know-Who,” Hermione said.

“You won’t need to learn how to do such a thing. It is way more complex, and in your case, unnecessary. Should you get caught, the Dark Lord already knows you have plenty to hide from him. There is no need to pretend that you don’t. You simply must refuse to let him in.”

“Is that… Even possible?”

“The Dark Lord is a human like you and I.”

And, well, Snape survived so many years… After a pause, he said:

“I suppose we should start with a… Game.”

“A game?”

“I see you’re taking out almost all memories you own. Keep at least one. One that you wouldn’t like me to know about, though that it wouldn’t be too terrible for any of us if I did see it. Keep it, and try to hide it. I will attempt to get inside your head. You will try to push me out, and if you can’t, then try to stop me from getting the memory you chose.”

“What do I get if I win?”

“You’re not going to. Not tonight. Choose well, Granger. I’m most definitely going to see it. As for myself, I’m a gracious winner and I will be more than satisfied with just your embarrassment.”

He smirked, then tipped his firewhiskey at her.

Oh.

Okay.

Hermione thought he’d make it gentle, for her. But she would never think he’d make it fun.

 


	16. Chapter 16

It felt like a polite guest was having his way around her head.

Even though she could tell Snape was going easy on her, Hermione didn’t like the feeling at all. He told her to keep her mind blank. Alas, the mere presence in her consciousness was enough to bring to surface what she meant to hide: feelings, thoughts, memories.

His little game was fun. The way he politely poked about the metaphysical space of her mind made all the times he _wasn’t_ fun bubble right up from the darkness. And when he started invading those memories, they came to Hermione as if she were reliving them.

Every single yell, every single vile insult against her.

And once they started coming, Hermione couldn’t help the downpour.

Snape won. Of course he did. In the middle of the storm, he caught the memory she chose to hide from him. The day she drank a Polyjuice potion with cat hair.

He pulled away from her, not seeming as smug as Hermione thought he’d be.

First thing, he went down on one knee in front of her.

“How are you feeling?”

“Terrible.” She replied, realizing she at some point at sat, or fell, on the armchair.

“That is how it usually feels. The Dark Lord tends to succeed moreso because his victims don’t know how it feels to have someone else inside their head. You must have felt it. You couldn’t keep anything from me _because_ I was in your head.”

“And you were being polite.”

“And I _was_ being polite, indeed. Unlike every other moment I have ever interacted with you, it seems like.” He swallowed dry. “My most sincere apologies. I… I had no clue this was how I came across. I would have toned it down if I had known…” A sigh. “I _should_ have known. I’m sorry.”

“It’s… It’s okay.”

“It’s not.” Snape replied, and stood. “You will be pleased to know that memory didn’t show me anything I didn’t already see.”

“Excuse me?”

“When you went to Madam Pomfrey… Did you honestly think she would not ask for my opinion on the matter? Of course, she tried not to make it so direct, because I suspected someone went through my personal supplies to brew Polyjuice and as far as she knew, I’d be furious. When I went to the hospital wing, I made sure to be there when you were sleeping. Which I am sorry for, just as well, but I needed to be sure it was due to misuse of Polyjuice and that you would be fine. Without, of course, letting anyone know I was not the asshole everyone thinks I am.”

Hermione leaned back on the armchair.

“ _Oh_.”

“If there is anyone who might have been close to figuring out my act all those years, that person was Madam Pomfrey, I will tell you as much.” Then Snape changed the subject, turning to her: “How come you were smart enough to brew a Polyjuice Potion and not know the difference between cat and human hair?”

“Don’t ask me that. She was blonde, the cat hair’s color seemed close enough. I don’t know.”

Hermione felt a bit dizzy. From the mind reading, from the confession, from Snape’s acknowledgement that she was smart… From everything.

“I will get you water.” he said and left to the kitchen for a precious couple of moments.

When he returned, Snape handed her a glass of water and went to sit at the couch, legs stretched, ankles crossed. Casual. Without a stick up his ass.

Hermione sipped on the water and asked:

“How did you learn Occlumency?”

“If I said I self-taught, I’d be lying to you. I learned Occlumency from the Dark Lord. Not that he taught me, however it is almost impossible to master Occlumency without having your mind read.”

“What… What happened?”

Snape shook his head, and his lips pursed in his usual sneer.

“I was a young, poor and half-blood Death Eater. Naturally, the Dark Lord didn’t hesitate to go through my head simply… Because it struck his fancy to do so. He didn’t even suspect of me hiding anything from him. He wished to remind me even my mind wasn’t my own. He could have it if he wanted to. And so I began reading about what I could do to make sure my head would remain my private space.”

Hermione took another sip of water.

“So you waited to master Occlumency before defecting?”

His gaze turned to her and he hesitated for a while.

“Not quite, but… I had to take the leap. Otherwise I wouldn’t live with myself. I barely did, by then.”

That was not the whole truth, Hermione sensed. It was a genuine enough part of it, though. Fine by her. He clearly valued his privacy. Pushing would indispose him, and she liked him when he was at ease.

He was a much better teacher in such occasions.  

Hermione drained the glass of water and set it on top of the center table.

“I’m ready to try again.”

And she tried again. And again. And again. Each time her control got better, however Snape grew less polite, as well. The Dark Lord wouldn’t be. Gentle mind readings would nothing for her in the long run.

“I don’t think I can through another one.” She said, her voice a thin thread as she tried to catch her breath and control her nausea. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t push yourself too hard.” Snape replied. “Not on my account. Why don’t you put your head between your knees?”

She couldn’t even tell where in the room he was. Her senses were all fuzzy, scrambled. Either way, her head ended up between her knees because he pushed her shoulders. A minute later, her breath evened out and she managed to sit straight, though her eyes remained closed.

“I will be gentler next time. And less carried away with the time, too.” he promised.

Hermione finally got her eyes to open. He was half-sat on the armrest of the armchair she stumbled on at some point.

“What time is it?” she asked.

“One in the morning.”

“Shit.”

She made a move to get on her feet, but he caught her before she could so and pulled her back into sitting.  

“You are in no conditions to leave just yet. It will be harder for you to come back to yourself if you don’t _relax_.”

Indeed she was in no condition to leave. Hermione’s head weighed at _least_ three thousand pounds. She closed her eyes again, dizzy. When she recovered her senses, her head rested on top of Snape’s thigh and his hand lightly rubbed her back.

She could have stirred, said something right away, but she didn’t. Not until…

“Eileen, what on Earth are you doing up at this hour?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for all the comments!!! I try to reply to all of them but I can't really check my inbox and give thoughtful replies as often as I'd like, so I'm behind on that, BUT I wanted to say thank you!


	17. Chapter 17

“I came to check up on you. Everything went quiet and I thought mom had gone home, but I didn’t hear you going to bed.” Eileen explained herself.

“You weren’t sleeping.”

“Nope. Reading.”

Severus swallowed dry and his eyes dropped to a very much passed out Hermione. She started to waver, and when he went to steady her, her head fell on his leg, and so… Well. He knew what that felt that like. He would have liked a back rub until his senses came back to him.

“What happened to mom?”

“Occlumency isn’t a walk in the park to learn. I… pushed her too hard. She must be unconscious. She said… She said she was fine, and I took her word.”

“I thought I was fine,” Granger argued in a mumble, and sat up.

“You were way past your limits. We should have stopped an hour ago!”

Still, he didn’t fail to notice she must have come back to herself a little while ago and simply didn’t mind moving or getting away from his touch.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” she replied, a bit sardonic.

Eileen eyed them both, and said:

“Shouldn’t mom sleep here, though?”

Severus was about to grow very red in the face — and who was to say how Granger reacted to that — when she continued:

“In my bed, of course.”

“That’s a lovely invitation, but I need to go to Grimmauld Place. Harry and Ron must be worried sick right about now.”

Granger’s voice sounded firmer, and she sat upright without much effort. Promising, though not to the point Severus felt comfortable with letting her apparate by herself.

“I’ll take you to Grimmauld Place. You’re in no condition to apparate.”

“I—”

“Take my word for it, Granger. I’ve been through this and you won’t be fine enough for something like that before sunrise.” Severus said. “And I’d like not to be murdered in cold blood by Potter and Weasley for keeping you here until then.”

“Fine,” she complied in groan that didn’t sound too different from Eileen’s. “Eileen, please go to bed, though. I’m coming here so you can have a decent night of sleep. If you’re going to stay up until one in the morning, this entire thing is going to be for nothing.”

“A fair point, mother. I shall retire to my chambers.” Eileen said, and retreated upstairs.

“She’s not going to sleep, is she?” Granger whispered.

“Most certainly not. I don’t think I’ve raised her well enough.”

Granger looked up to him with her head tilted. Then she stood, straightened her clothes and picked up Gryffindor’s sword to shove it in her magically expanded pocket.

“I’m ready whenever you are.”

He showed her the door, and out to the street they went.

“You weren’t supposed to be walking around in your robes.” She commented.

“No muggle is around to see me, so it should be fine. It wouldn’t be the first time I do this.”

They remained silent until they reached the back alley that was safe enough to apparate. Severus offered his arm for Hermione, and her hand rested on the crook of his elbow without hesitation.

“Before we go, can I ask you something, sir?”

“I will try to answer to my best abilities.”

Which was to say, he probably wouldn’t.

“Have you ever truly thought about being a father?”

He snorted at that. It was a safe enough question.

“Always did.”

Except his imaginary children were red-headed like their imaginary mother. In fact, they were nothing like him. And nothing like Lily, either, because who knew what kind of adult woman she became — or would become, if she had lived past her early twenties. It was all his imagination.

And his imagination would have never conceived Eileen on its own.

As far as children went, she was all he could see for the past couple of days. And more days to come, no doubt.

“Well, I… Didn’t think I would want to be a mother.”

“Did the last couple of days change your mind?”

She cleared her throat and chose not to answer that question. Fair enough. If she had asked him if he wanted Eileen to be born, he wouldn’t answer, either. Because his answer would be yes, actually, and that… Was best kept a secret.

Severus apparated away and delivered her at Grimmauld Place’s doorstep. She let go of him and before going inside, she said, sleepy, leaning against the door frame:

“Good night, sir.”

“Have pleasant dreams, Granger.”

“My name is Hermione, actually.”

“Mine certainly isn’t _sir_.”

“Okay, Severus. Sleep tight, then.”

As if he’d be able to sleep at all. It wasn’t as if he could even fathom looking at her in the sense that would be required for Eileen to be born. She was so young. Eileen’s age, from his point of view.

But the ease with which she had gone from full blown hostility to… _That_ , whatever it was, caught him off guard. And Severus never had been so close to anyone before — again, he sounded pathetic, however it was the truth. Barring Eileen, of course, who knew everything about him and his feelings preemptively.

She knew him way to well.

Eileen waited for him at the armchair when he returned home. Her face started out neutral, but her lips curled up in a smirk. Then a grin.

“What?” Severus snarled.

She went to her feet slowly.

“That went well, I’d say. Even though she passed out and everything.”

“Eileen, I need to ask you something.”

“Anything, daddy-o.”

“Please don’t push us together. Hermione is about your age. If…” he paused. “If we are ever meant to be at all, it won’t be now. I… I don’t want her to be afraid of me, thinking that I want…”

He couldn’t even bring himself to say it. Sure, he wouldn’t be arrested or anything. It didn’t mean it was right.

Eileen’s brows creased.

“Yeah, you’re right. I… I really want you to be together, because I know better than anyone you two will be so happy if that happens. But… Yeah. Mom is young as fuck.”

Pause.

“What? As if you didn’t teach me everything I know.”

Severus sighed.

“Good night, Eileen. Go to sleep, for fuck’s sake.”

She smiled at him, wrapped her dangly arms around his middle and stayed there until he caved in and kissed her forehead.

When he went up the stairs, she already snored in her room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lmao I got my arm lesioned from typing too much so I won't be answering comments for a while. I read them all though, and I really love them!! They really keep me motivated! 
> 
> For now I'm saving my arm to updating the fic though bc priorities am I rite ladies


	18. Chapter 18

Severus didn’t realize how well things were going until they started going wrong. McGonagall waited for him at the castle’s entrance, her face pale as a sheet, her jaw clenched shut.

Of course.

She took a student to him and the girl vanished.

“Headmaster, may I have a word with you?”

It almost felt like a joke to hear her addressing to him as “Headmaster”. He didn’t quite believe the Dark Lord chose him for Headmaster when he was half the age of all the other teachers in Hogwarts.

“At my office, yes.”

McGonagall looked at him with utter disgust. He didn’t need to read her mind to know she thought he had kidnapped Eileen for his own twisted purposes. He hoped the walk to his office would buy him enough time to decide what he should do about it. Severus didn’t want to be thought of as a sexual predator, on top of murderer.

Out of them both, he was just one.

At the same time, though, he needed to keep Eileen safe, first and foremost. The more people knew, the less safe she’d be.

Should he _obliviate_ McGonagall?

He didn’t want to do that.

And since it had been two days of her simmering that event in her mind, it could be that he wouldn’t be able to properly wipe every single memory related to that night, either. He should have obliviated her on the spot.

It was too late for that, now.

They walked into his office and Severus sat at his chair — Dumbledore’s chair. His portrait almost didn’t stay in his frame, as secretive as Dumbledore himself. Good. Otherwise, he would have witnessed Eileen’s appearance, too, and he’d be yet another loose thread.

“What do you wish to talk about, McGonagall? Have a seat.”

She didn’t have the seat.

“The girl, Snape. The girl. Where is she?”

“Safe. That is all you need to know.”

“She is not in the castle anymore, is she?”

“Indeed she is not.”

“I see I thought too highly of you.”

McGonagall was not going to let the matter go. She’d poke around. Because, from her point of view, a teenager girl had been kidnapped by a Death Eater who turned into Hogwarts’ Headmaster just so the Dark Lord could have control of the school.

And if the Carrows caught her doing her investigations, then they’d wonder why, indeed, a girl had vanished. Because none of them trusted Severus. Because they knew Severus would never kidnap a girl to keep for himself in the way McGonagall wondered. They’d think he took her away to keep her safe from the Dark Lord, and they’d be right about that.

“I am keeping her safe, McGonagall. For very good reasons. How well can you occlude?”

“How does that—”

“ _How well can you occlude_?” Severus repeated his question, with more force.

“I can hold my own, if I must.”

“That is not enough. I suggest you master it.”

“Why, pray tell?”

“Because there are two options. Either the truth is safe with you, and I will be able to explain myself, or the truth isn’t safe with you, and I will be forced to scrub every single memory you have related to that night.”

McGonagall was a force to be reckoned with, Severus knew. He’d prefer not to get into a combat with her in a cramped space, such as the office. He slipped. He should have obliviated her before she sensed a problem.

“What is the truth, Snape?”

“The truth, McGonagall, is that the girl knew what the horcruxes are and where to find them. Most importantly, how to find them.”

McGonagall narrowed her gaze. Severus continued:

“Didn’t you notice the strange uniform? The fact she is not a student currently enrolled? She came from the future. The time-turner she used to attend classes broke. Apparently, the Dark Lord is defeated within the next several months.”

“And why would she look for you, then?”

“The history books in the future will do me justice.”

Which was true, he knew, but the actual main reason was that he was her father. McGonagall didn’t need to know that.

“Do you _justice_?”

“My loyalty to the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore never wavered, McGonagall. I did as he told me to do. I’d die, if he asked me to. I’d kill. I _did_ kill, as it is well remembered by anyone who hears my side of the story.”

Finally, McGonagall sat down.

“I don’t believe a single word you just said.”

“You don’t have to. All I need you to do is to keep quiet about the girl and stop asking around for her. No one knows her. Her name is not on any list, not even the future students’ list because she is not even a thought in her mother’s head yet. If the Carrows come about my office asking about this girl, I may be forced to abandon my cover. Without me here, you know very well they will be using Cruciatus to punish the students.”

There was a long pause.

“Weasley, Potter and Granger must be looking for the horcruxes.”

“I’m well aware, McGonagall. I’ve found them. I am also keeping them safe at Grimmauld Place.”

He’d have to go to the Dark Lord and lie through his teeth about that shambling house soon enough.

McGonagall perked on her spot.

“So if I go there, I can expect to find them?”

“Yes,” Severus said carefully. “I have taken the real Gryffindor’s sword to them and I am teaching them Occlumency. You can verify it yourself.”

“I shall.”

Severus hoped she wouldn’t want to do that. Because _then_ she’d find out the whole entire truth — and figure out the part of it that had been omitted. Frankly, it was so obvious.

And then she’d circle right back into thinking he was a sexual predator.

Damn it.

And because he looked cross at the idea, McGonagall was sure to go and catch him on the outrageous lie. She’d catch him on an entirely different lie. He could only hope it wouldn't be too big of a mess. Knowing his luck, of course it'd be. 

Though he was much more concerned with Hermione. He hoped the Weasley boy wouldn't make much of a fuss.

 


	19. Chapter 19

Hermione woke up to the sound of pages turning.

“What time is it?” she asked to Eileen, who was reading a book by Harry’s bed.

“It’s about eleven. In the morning.”

“It’s so late!”

“Well, you got mentally beaten up last night, so it’s understandable. By the way, dad sent something for you.”

Eileen fished out of the pocket of her shorts a small vial and tossed it to Hermione. The vial fell on her lap.  

Hermione smelled it, and knowing it wouldn’t taste good, drank it all at once. In a matter of seconds, her mind went from drowsy to completely awake, which made her notice Eileen wore a white shirt she must have gotten straight from Severus’ wardrobe. Besides that…

“Why are you hiding in here, Eileen? Did Ron or Harry say something to you?”

“No, I just don’t want them to look too hard at me. I said I was sleepy, and Uncle Harry said I could use his bed if I wanted to. Thus, here I am.”

With that, she stood and went to sit at the end of Hermione’s “bed”. Then, Eileen let her head fall softly on Hermione’s lap.

Petting the girl’s hair was way too tempting. Her curls were looser than Hermione’s, but just as soft.

Hermione sat up to stroke her daughter’s hair, amazed at the fact her body could produce a whole other human being like that. As many teenager girls, the idea of going through labor frightened her to death, though with the final product on her hands, she wondered if the pain wouldn’t be worth it, after all.  

Eileen snuggled to her.

“I’m a clingy kid. Just to let you know.” She said with her voice muffled.

Hermione simply laughed, wondering if that information would ever be useful.

The room was so silent and peaceful she could hear the soft ticking of Eileen’s time port key. A knock on the front door interrupted the peace and quiet.

“Wait, is that dad?”

Eileen sprung to her feet and left the room without her shoes. Hermione followed suit, though her wand was at ready. Severus wouldn’t show up in the middle of the day like that unless an emergency had happened.

“Ah, Potter!” McGonagall exclaimed. “I am so glad to see you. Weasley, you as well!”

Eileen froze on the stairs leading down to the front door. So did Hermione, behind her.

“Professor McGonagall! What are you doing here? Please come in.” Harry said, opening the door wider.

McGonagall walked inside and only then she noticed Hermione and Eileen frozen on the stairs.

“Granger, and… Who would you be, dear?”

“Eileen. Sorry we didn’t have the time for introductions last time. I assume dad must have told you—”

“Excuse me. Dad?”

“Oh, shit. He didn’t tell you everything, then.”

Her face twisted, and went purple. Then she looked at Hermione. Then at Eileen. Then back at Hermione.

“Yes, I’m his kid. _Future_ kid. A pleasure to meet you, Headmaster McGonagall.”

“O-oh. He did leave out that part of the information, indeed.” McGonagall said, recomposing herself as Hermione and Eileen climbed down the stairs.

Hermione’s heart drummed against her ribs. Ron has his lips tightly pressed together, but he said nothing.

“But he did give you the sword.” McGonagall continued. 

“He did. We were waiting for Hermione to wake up to destroy the locket,” Harry said, carefully.

“So it is true. He has been on our side all this time.”

“I suppose we don’t have any more arguments against that, after last night.”

McGonagall swallowed dry.

“Granger, may I have a word with you? Privately?”

“O-of course, ma’am.”

Hermione went back up the stairs and lead McGonagall to same room with the divan and the shelves in which Severus had his last temper tantrum. The books that fell were still on the ground.

“Did he send you here, McGonagall?”

“I suppose he preferred me not to come. Though I needed to see with my own eyes that what he said was true. I am… Glad that it is.”

Yet, McGonagall didn’t look happy. She looked at Hermione with a pitiful look.

“My dear, I don’t know how to ask you this, but—”

The door flung open.

“Did Snape tell you Eileen is your daughter, too?” Harry blurted out as soon as he closed the door behind himself.

Hermione bit her lower up.

“Se… Professor Snape did inform me of that, first thing, yes.”

McGonagall exhaled and fell to the divan, her eyes darting everywhere as she clutched her heart. Harry just pursed his lips.

“And you didn’t tell us.” He said.

“I didn’t have the courage. How could I even begin to explain that? To you? To _Ron_?”

“And he is not trying to talk you into anything, right? During the lessons?”

“Lessons?” McGonagall asked.

“He is teaching Occlumency to Hermione, so she can teach us. At _his_ house. At _night_.” Harry stressed.

“He’s not trying to _talk_ me into anything, Harry. Please. Professor Snape is not that kind of man. Don’t think of him that way. He has many other faults you can hate him for.”

Something she could no longer do.

Harry shook his head, looked away.

“How did that even happen?”

“The usual way. We… Fell in love. Married. Had Eileen.”

Not exactly in that order.

It was McGonagall’s turn to shake her head.

“You’re barely an adult!”

“It doesn’t happen now, professor McGonagall. Eileen is born in 2004. I was twenty-four years old.”

Silence fell heavy on the ambient.

“Can I ask you two something? Please don’t tell Ron.”

“He’s going to notice!” McGonagall retorted.

To which Harry quietly responded:

“He doesn’t want to notice, ma’am. And he is going to be pretty out of his mind if he is forced to notice for last.”

“As long as it is after the end of the war and we’re no longer stuck here.” Hermione said, her tone cool.

There was no salvaging her relationship with Ron after that, no doubt.

“At least with Eileen, it shouldn’t last very long.”

She sure hoped so. And, frankly, the fact Harry noticed and didn’t shun Eileen for it made her not care much if the fallout with Ron was beyond repair.

Now was just not the right time for that.

McGonagall stood up and adjusted her glasses a little better.

“I wish you the best of luck with that, Granger.”

“Professor, I—”

“It’s fine, my dear. Now that I gave it a bit of thought, I shouldn’t be so surprised with such a development.”

On that note, she left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> McGonagall's only role in this fic is to stir the pot lmaooo
> 
> Also my arm is still hurting so I'm "writing" the chapters by dictating which has been... An experience. Sorry if I haven't been replying to the comments, I really need my arm to heal :(


	20. Chapter 20

First thing, Eileen wrapped her arms around her father’s neck.

“You’re heavier than you look,” observed Severus, holding her by the waist as she raised her feet from the floor.

“I suuure am.”

With his free hand, Severus closed the door behind Hermione. Eileen finally let go of her grip on him and slipped back to the floor, and her brows were creased then.

“Hey, why didn’t you tell Headmaster McGonagall I was your daughter?”

“I was hoping she wouldn’t feel the need to visit Grimmauld Place and see for herself that I didn’t kidnap you with… Wicked purposes.”

“Oh, she did.” Hermione said. “And she also figured out Eileen is my daughter too.”

“I did warn you that fact was very obvious, Hermione.”

It was.

Hermione sighed.

“It _is_ , but Ron doesn’t seem to want to put two and two together, so I’m not going to do that for him while the war is still happening. Good thing both McGonagall and Harry thought you just hadn’t told me about it.”

“ _Potter_?”

“He knew, too.”

“You’d think Weasley is the one who needs to be wearing glasses.” Severus observed, then turned to Eileen: “You should get ready for bed. And please do try your best to stop reading before the wee hours of the morning. Have you eaten?”

“That is irrelevant. You made dinner, right?”

He nodded, and Eileen went to the kitchen to pile up dinner on her plate and scurry away to her room with it, not before wishing both her parents a pleasant Occlumency lesson.

“Did you have a chance of teaching Potter and Weasley anything?” Severus asked.

“No. Destroying the locket wasn’t… Fun. It kept saying terrible things to rile us up and stop us from doing what we were meant to do. With that and McGonagall’s visit, we were just…”

She thought he’d reprimand her for not starting right away. Instead he said:

“No matter. You would have been too drained from last night.”

That, too.

“At least I left my memories here, so we won’t have to waste time with that tonight,” Hermione said.

The thought didn’t cross her mind until that moment. Well, considering his tantrum when Harry saw his memories, it wouldn’t be very likely of him to go through hers. Moreso because he’d be bound to come across some very awkward ones involving Ron — and he was well aware of that.

But, Severus wasn’t done talking about McGonagall, now that Eileen was out of earshot.

“She didn’t react too badly, I hope.”

“Well, she was shocked. As one would expect,” Hermione replied with a nervous laugh. “Then she said she shouldn’t have been surprised by it all. I’m not certain what she meant by that. Did she mean I was always meant to bang a teacher?”

Severus narrowed his eyes at her. Then he stepped back and turned away from her so she couldn’t see his expression. Hermione remained still, respectful of his privacy.

“I rather think she was talking about _me_.” he said after a while.

“About… You?”

He sighed.

“I said too much. Forget about it. Just keep in mind that it wasn’t an insult towards you. Or any possible propensities towards authority figures who are old enough to be your father.”

His face was a little too pale when he faced her again.

“Have you thought about what you’ll hide from me this evening?”

Not at all. Well, actually… A smirk grew on her face against her will, which prompted him to say:

“Something tells me I should hope you got better since last attempt.”

It was impossible to say either she got better or not, for Severus was gentler in his attempts. Less so than the beginning of the previous lesson, and still far from the force he used at the end. At least that way Hermione learned how to keep awareness of her physical body and surroundings while still battling Severus inside her own head.

It really was trial and error. Reading books wouldn’t prepare her for the mental assault.

Took him way longer, but he found it.

He could feel him watching, dumbfounded, as twelve-years-old Hermione went under the bleachers from the Quidditch pitch and set his cloak on fire.

“This has certainly answered a question that has plagued me since then.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Hermione said amidst laughter. “You just really looked like you were hexing Harry’s broomstick.”

She dropped on the couch, trying not to laugh too hard at his indignant expression.

Severus sat on his armchair. His gaze regarded her in a much different way.

“I always wondered who was the mastermind out of you three.”

“I suppose that would be me. Mastermind and babysitter. A pleasure.”

“And you brewed the Polyjuice Potion that turned you into a cat, too.” he affirmed.

“Yes.”

He shook his head and started to struggle against a smile.

“And I thought you were dragged into their plans.”

“Well, yes. At first. But once I set my mind to something, of course I’ll do it the best way I know how.”

Silence fell on the room. After a while, Severus said:

“I fucked up with McGonagall. I should have obliviated her as soon as she brought Eileen into my office. Of course, I didn’t know anything that would happen to me in the following couple of hours. It’s dangerous for both me and her that McGonagall knows.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I didn’t _want_ to. McGonagall was my teacher.”

“I could do that.” Hermione offered. “I’m pretty good at obliviating. It’s probably going to be difficult since it has been, what, three days, but… I could do it. Harry and Ron would be furious at me, but they’d understand. It’d be a disaster if You-Know-Who learns about Eileen and you’re forced to drop your cover. And I, unlike you, have no qualms with physically harming teachers if I must and have no respect for authority, either.”

“Aren’t you lovely?”

“Do you want me to do it or not, Severus?”

“McGonagall could help us help the students inside the castle. I won’t take two months for the Carrows to realize Longbottom has been leading a group of students in making our lives difficult. I can’t help him. McGonagall might.”

“No obliviating, then.” Hermione decided.

“I’m sure the opportunity will turn up, worry not, Hermione.”

She supposed she was a bit trigger happy with the obliviating. Not a day went by that she didn’t regret doing such a thing with her parents. At least she knew they’d attend her… Wedding.

Hermione never stopped to think that, if that future held through, she was speaking to her future husband.


	21. Chapter 21

Severus kept an eye on the hour that night. Hermione was making better progress than she thought; in a month or two she’d be able to be completely impervious to the Dark Lord’s attacks.

Given that he wouldn’t attempt to use Cruciatus on her to get her to loosen up.

Who was Severus kidding?

He would never let the situation go that far.

At exactly midnight, he walked her to the spot in a shady back alley that was safe enough to apparate.

“You should tell Weasley. Before he realizes it or someone else tells him. You know that, don’t you?”

She sighed in response.

“I know, I just… I don’t want to deal with it in the middle of a war. He will want to break up with me and he will hate my guts. He’s not going to let the matter go easily.”

“I assume you don’t want him to break up with you for something you didn’t even do. And won’t even do.”

Hermione cleared her throat.

“It isn’t like I’m going to marry Ron or anything. Breaking up now or later is of no consequence to me. I’d just prefer not to do this right now.”

“I wish you the best of luck with that.”

Nothing more was said until they reached their destination and Hermione apparated away.

Severus returned to his house and went on to finally undo his outer robes, roll his sleeves, and untuck his shirt while he was at it.

He needed to wash the dishes and tidy the kitchen before going to bed.

At first, he thought impossible the fact he would stay at home to take care of Eileen, though the decision started to make sense. What kind of job could he get after it was all said and done that would get him to leave his house with a smile on his face?

Taking care of an actual baby couldn’t possibly be a walk in the park, but he had done worse for someone he loved. And the person didn’t even love him back, and was dead, so it was all in all a pretty thankless job.

If raising Eileen meant having a daughter _and_ a happy wife, then… He’d wash dishes, and clean bodily fluids and everything else looking after a child entailed.

Too bad that happy wife would have to be Hermione, because he still didn’t think there was the slightest chance of in the future, maybe—

“Severus?” An anxious knock. “Severus, are you there?”

Hermione stood by his doorstep when he opened the door; her lips were pressed together in a frightened expression.

“Can I come in again?”

“Of course you can. What… Happened?”

Though he had an idea already. He hadn’t gone to the Dark Lord to tell him Grimmauld Place was empty. And there was a lot of back and forth in the past couple of days.

“Death Eater watching the entrance.” she said, breathing a little easier after Severus closed the door.

He had to take a deep breath.

“I should have gone to the Dark Lord ages ago.”

“You’ll go tomorrow, it’s… It’s fine. Is it okay if I stay here an hour or two until—”

“This is going to sound terrible,” he cut her off. “But I’m not letting you leave to Grimmauld Place tonight.”

Hermione scoffed.

“Not _letting_ me? Are you listening to yourself?”

“For fuck’s sake, Hermione. You know what I mean. It’s too dangerous for you to keep going back and forth. In case you couldn’t tell, I have some neighbors who might see you at some point. Not to mention the risk of you being seen by the Death Eater in question. You need to stay, and you know this.”

“I suppose I’ll take on Eileen’s offer to sleep on her bed.” Hermione relented after a moment of silence.

“Good. And I’ll take the chance to go to the Dark Lord and get him off our scent, since you’ll be here to look after Eileen should something happen.”

Not that was how he planned to spend his early morning, though it seemed to be the perfect time to put that step of the plan into motion.

“Wait. Now?”

“What other time there is? I don’t like the thought of leaving Eileen alone and I have a school to run during daytime.”

Hermione shook her head and crossed her arms in front of her chest, uneasy with the idea.

“This should have been more planned.”

“I’m not going to be careless when it comes to Eileen’s safety,” he said.

What was left unsaid was that Hermione’s safety and wellbeing started to matter just as much. He felt responsible for her, because he dragged her into this mess. More than that, he felt terrible that someone so young had to be in such a situation. Unlike him, Hermione did nothing wrong.

Well, she did a few things wrong. With perfectly good intentions, though. The occasional arson was understandable.

“I know. I guess I’ll just wait for you to come back.”

“Go to sleep. Eileen can find whatever you need.”

She shook her head.

“I’ll wait for you.”

Severus could tell he wouldn’t be able to persuade her away from that. And her concern for him was almost touching. He wiped his damp hands on his pants, and said:

“The kitchen is in quite the state, since you’ve caught me at a bad time, but it is all yours to use if you feel the need to.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

With a sigh, he summoned his frock coat and got himself presentable. Hermione wandered off and went to check on the books. Naturally. She picked one, cozied up on _his_ armchair. Started reading like she owned the place.

She didn’t see or very much hear Severus letting out a second resigned sigh before heading to the door.

“Hey.”

“What is it, Hermione?”

“Good luck.”

Well…

He sure hoped to come back alive and in one piece. Much unlike all the other times, where he almost wanted to slip up and get killed, just so he wouldn’t have to continue being… Himself.

“Thank you. I will attempt not to die tonight.”

“Don’t even _joke_ about this, you ass.”

Severus left his house with a reluctant smile on his lips.


	22. Chapter 22

It didn’t take long after Severus’ departure for Eileen to wake up.

Hermione heard the soft sound of a door opening and closing and the girl came down the stairs.

“What’s going on? Where’s… Where’s Dad?”

Hermione had to take a deep breath. Eileen did very much love her dad. How to explain to her he left and there was a possibility he wouldn’t come back? And with that, there was a possibility time and space would fall apart?

“Severus had to leave for a while. He’ll back shortly.”

“Leave where, mom? I’m not a toddler.” she said in a very serious tone that freaked Hermione out.

“He had to meet with You-Know-Who. He didn’t have a chance of getting the Death Eaters off our scent, and there was one in front of Grimmauld Place just now. So I came back, and he decided to solve that issue.”

“And he might just _die_ tonight.”

“He’s not going to die, Eileen. He’s a pretty good Occlumens, you know.” But Hermione wasn’t so certain of it herself. Still, she wouldn’t go down on a panic herself and make Eileen feel worse. She stood and held Eileen tight. “He’ll be okay, sweetie. He’ll be here before you know it.”

Seeing Eileen’s reaction to that made Hermione acknowledge how the war had made her numb. Yes, she was afraid to death of Severus slipping and getting caught. Still, it seemed only Eileen understood how serious that risk was. Of course. She grew up in a peaceful wizardry world, with her two loving parents, not once having to think about their sudden death.

As Hermione had to.

Eileen let go of the hug.

“I’m going to freak out. I need something to do while we wait.” Her eyes searched the room and rested on the kitchen. “Well, I could finish what he started with the dishes.”

“I’ll help you.”

Though that would make the task end quicker and, in that case, Hermione needed to come up with another distraction for Eileen until Severus showed up. You-Know-Who wouldn’t keep him in the Manor until too long after the morning, yet there was still some time until then.

Severus had been halfway done with cleaning the kitchen before the forced exit.

Eileen went to scrub the dirty dishes and Hermione settled with the task of rinsing them.

“So he cooks and washes the dishes?”

“I don’t think he knows I’m actually proficient with household chores.” Eileen replied, her voice shaky, though at least her tone was back to her usual upbeat humor. “And I’m not going to correct him on that. If anyone asks, you washed this all alone. In the future he will make me clean up after myself, so let me enjoy this while I still can.”

Hermione shook her head with a smile.

“I thought he spoiled you rotten.”

“You’d never let him do that, naturally. What kind of adult will I be if I can’t even wash my own dishes? Dad taught me how to cook, too, but we can all agree he’s the best cook out of us three. Your cooking is tragic, mom.”

“Some things never change, do they?” Hermione commented, with a lighter heart.

Indeed they were done with the dishes way too fast. They stood in the kitchen staring one another for a moment.

“So while we’re stuck here waiting, why don’t you tell me more about… Your life? I think I’m at a huge disadvantage. You know everything about me, and I know nothing about you.”

“I didn’t think you’d want to know, mom. All things considered.”

“Now I’d like to.”

Moreso because talking about her daily life with her parents made Eileen less nervous. Perhaps it reminded her they’d still be there for her should something happen to Severus.

“Okay. I’ll get my phone.”

Hermione shook her head and went to sit by the couch to wait for Eileen’s return. The girl plopped right beside her, turning on the device.

“It’s on its last legs, but I wanted to show you some pictures.”

“Does that phone work in Hogwarts?”

“Duh. Of course we learned a way around electronic devices not functioning in magical places. We got Professor Flitwick to install a wi-fi router — wireless internet — on the Ravenclaw Tower. And then another on the library because everyone stood by the hallway to steal the signal.”

Hermione didn’t understand everything Eileen said, but she simply nodded.

“What do you want to show me?”

“Oh, just a few random pictures of our last vacations. You told me to pick a place, and I chose the Caribbean because you and I fucking _love_ beaches, to Dad’s dismay.”

“He hates the sun?”

“And large bodies of water.”

Eileen opened the gallery of photos in her fancy phone and rolled down. Hermione caught a glimpse of a bunch of photos at Hogwarts. In the classroom, library, just a teenager girl playing around with a camera and registering her moments. Then the pictures turned blue, and green and yellow instead of stone grey.

“Because I am tacky as hell, I got us matching swimsuits.” The girl said and showed a picture of her and Hermione tanning by the sun, both swimsuits white with an identical palm leaf patterns, though of course Hermione’s was way more modest than Eileen’s.

“You have excellent taste.”

“I know, mother. And I even…” Then she slid to another picture, a selfie. It was her, lying on top of both future Hermione and future Severus on a hammock — who wore a short sleeved black button up with the same leaf pattern and a stylish pair of sunglasses Eileen must have made him wear. “We looked excellent.”

The arm with the Dark Mark was completely covered with a tattoo.

Holy shit.

“Oh, he already has one, mom. What’s another?”

Okay, then. Way too much information. But it got Hermione hungry for more. Severus was not the type of man she imagined she’d be happy with in many levels. Frankly, he looked like a retired metalhead with the tattoos and the hair and the sunglasses.

To be fair, he already looked like that.

Besides… How much money did they make to afford such luxurious vacations?

“We’re sure wealthy, aren’t we?”

“Well, the salary of the Minister of Magic is hefty.”

“Wait. Severus?”

“Of course not. You. Dad is the First Lady.”


	23. Chapter 23

“ _I’m_ the Minister of Magic?”

“Yeah! You took over last year. Well, twenty-one years from now. I have the pictures of the party still on my phone, I think. Shit, I might have a damn video of the speech you gave.”

Eileen went to look for that while Hermione laid back on the couch in stunned silence. Thirty-nine years old was awfully young for a minister, too.

“Yes! I have the video still!” Eileen exclaimed, and then got closer to show it. The place was a crowded ballroom. Eileen must have been sat at a table very close to the stage — of course, she was the daughter of the Minister. Future Hermione went to stage, beaming, with a gorgeous deep green dress. She opened her mouth and Eileen fast-forwarded the video. “Let’s just jump to what really matters, shall we?”

“And, of course…” said future Hermione. “I have to thank my husband, because _someone_ had to keep my daughter clean and fed while I worked very long hours throughout all these years.”

To that, people laughed.

The camera turned to Severus, all in black of course, who shook his head while trying to keep a straight face.

“I _love_ how that is what she remembers of me.” he commented to Eileen, ironic.

Still, one could tell he beamed, too, for his wife.

Which just so happened to be Hermione.

“And my daughter, as well. She is the main reason why I wish to do everything I possibly can to leave the Wizardry World a little bit better, in the present, and for the generations of witches and wizards to yet come. Thank you so very much for this honor.”

The camera cut off a split of second later.

“I had to clap, of course,” Eileen explained herself. “Not everyday your mom gets promoted to _Minister of Magic_.”

Hermione didn’t know what to say. The more she learned of it, the more that possible life sounded… Perfect. As perfect as it could be. Yes, even considering the person she’d be married to.

The front door opened, and Eileen leaped to her feet.

“Dad! Are you okay?”

“I’m alive, with all four limbs, so that is… The best I could have hoped for.” he said, slowly, and limped just as slowly to the couch. Severus sat but wouldn’t even relax. Even the pressure of the couch seemed to put him in more pain. “The Dark Lord wasn’t happy to learn he lost the trail and also lost time by looking for you at Grimmauld Place. The aftermath of a Cruciatus isn’t pretty.”

“What can we do?”

“By now I think you must have found where I keep my potions. Would you please do me the favor of fetching the strongest painkiller there?”

Eileen didn’t even answer and ran to the upper floor. Hermione pressed her lips together. She wanted to help yet couldn’t bring herself to even look at him. A bit afraid, perhaps, of how she’d react to him now that she saw more evidence that, yes, he’d make her pretty happy and he’d truly love her.

“What were you and Eileen doing?” Severus asked.

“She was just showing me some… Pictures. Of her life.”

“How was it like?”

“For one, she is the daughter of the Minister of Magic.” Hermione said, and only then turned to Severus. “Did you know you’re First Lady in 2019?”

He raised both of his brows in surprise.

“Now there is an accomplishment I never thought to be possible for me.”

“Well, congratulations for that.”

Hermione cleared her throat, uneasy. She shouldn’t want all of that. Yet… She started to. And Severus was part of the deal. He cleared his throat as well and adjusted his position for a more comfortable one with a grunt of pain.

“Can I ask you something, Hermione?”

“I’ll try to answer.”

“Do you still think it’s… Impossible?”

Eileen showed up at the top of the stairwell, so Hermione just shook her head no. The girl opened the vial and gave it to Severus, to the sit beside him with a troubled expression.

“How much does a Cruciatus hurt?”

“A fair bit.” Severus replied after swallowing the potion all in one sip. “Don’t concern yourself over it. I… Made my choice. Long ago. You know what a Death Eater is, do you not, darling?”

“I do know that, dad.”

“Well, I was one.”

Hermione could tell Eileen wanted to touch him, but he seemed to be in such pain that a touch would make him feel worse. Severus could, too, so he went to say:

“I’m here, in one piece, so you can go back to bed. And take Hermione with you while you’re at it.”

“Won’t you need help to go up the stairs?” Hermione asked, her voice soft.

“In ten minutes, I won’t.”

As much as Eileen was clingy, she knew when to leave Severus alone. So she just capitulated to his wishes and stood, and Hermione followed her up the stairs, into a room that had to be a study before Eileen took over and made a room for herself.

She went on to find a pair of pajamas — Hermione suspected they belonged to someone else, given the color scheme and the size —, a towel and a toothbrush.

“I think that’s everything, right?” she said.

“Should be enough.”

Eileen tucked herself into bed and Hermione proceeded to go to the bathroom. Still uneasy with the sudden turn of events, she showered, brushed her teeth, changed. Once changed, she brought the sleeve up to her nose.

Smelled like him.

She pressed her lips together and slid under the covers with Eileen, who was still up, looking at old pictures, fondly reminiscing. Fondly hoping. Then the screen went black, all of a sudden. The battery must have died.

Only then Eileen realized Hermione was ready for bed. She put away the phone and made room for Hermione.

“As every other teenager, I hate to admit my parents are right, but we should go to sleep. I know it must be… Weird.”

“It’s nothing to do with you, Eileen. I’m sorry if I haven’t been as good to you as Severus has been.”

Eileen shrugged.

“I know I’d feel weird about it if a daughter of mine showed up right now. I’m not _nearly_ old enough for that kind of responsibility. So I really don’t mind. As long as my work here is being done…”

“Work? Which work?” Hermione asked, well-humored, while finally joining Eileen.

“You know, convincing you of birthing me so the loop closes and all that.”

It troubled Hermione to realize…

Eileen was doing her work right.


	24. Chapter 24

Severus ought to stop procrastinating.

He didn’t stop to think, beforehand, how much more awkward it’d be to wake Eileen up if Hermione was right there with her. The first morning after she showed up, he learned a lesson the hard way: she’d never be up in the time without outside interference.

But that initial awkwardness went away as soon as he realized it wasn’t out of a place for him to do that. He wouldn’t know. He didn’t have a father that cared.

Now, with Hermione…

The room was oddly quiet, from the outside. They both had to be fast asleep, and it wouldn’t surprise him, considering they stayed up, waiting for him. The experience of coming home to two concerned people struck him harder than what he’d be comfortable admitting.

He knocked at the door, softly.

No answer.

Severus sipped his coffee and realized there was no way around it. He opened the door and stepped inside; Hermione and Eileen were, naturally, still passed out. Though, in his favor, there was the fact Hermione’s foot was sticking out from the covers, so he settled for tickling her sole.

Now that he knew her better, he was aware she’d hex him to hell and back if he went to wake her as he woke Eileen — with a kiss on her forehead. Because, yes, he did enjoy taking the role of her father while he could.

Hermione kicked his hand away, and opened an eye.

“Oh. Hi. Good morning.” She yawned, sitting up and eyeing his coffee.

He sighed.

“Do you want coffee? I’m sure having only four hours of sleep isn’t ideal.”

“I would like some, yes.”

Off his coffee went.

Whatever.

“Wake Eileen up, will you?” Severus requested, already heading to the door before the situation got even more strange.

“Okay. I will.”

She smiled to him and sipped on the mug before he got to close the door behind him.

Then he went down the stairs to pour himself _another_ coffee while Eileen and Hermione got up and ready to leave. He could leave already, in all honesty, considering Eileen wasn’t alone, but he wanted to speak to the girl before he left.

Hermione came down first, though.

Now that she was properly awake, she wouldn’t even look in his general direction as she walked past him and went to wash the mug.

He shouldn’t have asked her anything, the night before.

“Hermione, I’m sorry about what I asked last night. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable and I didn’t mean—”

“I know. Don’t worry. I know that, at this point, you probably want Eileen to be born.”

Severus said nothing. He wouldn’t deny it, but he also couldn’t say it out loud, to Hermione.

“And I get it,” she continued. “I kind of want her to be born, too. And I wouldn’t pass up on being the Minister of Magic, either. But…”

“It’s strange. And terribly uncomfortable.”

Hermione held back a smile.

“Yes, it is. Even more so because I saw it all. Eileen was showing me pictures of her last family vacations last night. Showing pictures of… Us.”

Severus sighed, despite being pleased that he managed to clean up the air between them so she wouldn’t think he was suddenly after her.

“Eileen isn’t trying to convince you of anything, is she?”

“No. I think she understood pretty well how _terribly uncomfortable_ the situation is right now.”

“Good. I warned her against it.”

“Thank you for that.”

Their conversation ended just in time for Eileen to come marching down the staircase and go straight into Severus’ arms.

“You good?” she asked.

“I’m good. Don’t worry.”

Was it a bit selfish for him to want Eileen to exist sometime in the future just to have someone that unguardedly concerned about his wellbeing? Maybe it was, though it was a strong argument in favor of it.

And Hermione…

Well, he started to understand his future self’s decision to disappear for years after the war. She had much more to her than what he thought, and, yes, she was a pretty girl. She did have a pretty smile and adorable chubby cheeks and… All of that.

But she was still just a girl, who just so happened to be legally an adult. He didn’t think he’d ever be able to look at her in any other way if he stuck around to see her growing into an actual adult woman.

“Eileen, we really need to hurry today. I didn’t get to warn Harry and Ron I’m fine, so they must be going crazy right now. We can eat at Grimmauld Place.”

Eileen let go of Severus with a nod.

“Bye, dad.”

“Have a pleasant day, love.”

“See you later, I suppose,” Hermione said in a guarded tone.

“Not for an overnight stay if we’re lucky.” Severus replied, his tone as even as hers, and with that, she left, taking Eileen by the hand.

Grimmauld Place felt empty to Severus once they were gone.

If things went wrong again and Eileen was never born, somehow he’d have to convince another woman to marry and have a child with him because he came to learn he really wanted children — or just a child — and a family.

Convincing Hermione seemed an impossible task, though. Starting with the fact that the idea of doing so made him nauseous.

It would all make sense in a few years.

He hoped.

Eileen had been right about him: he was afraid of hoping. There was comfort in the pain of dreaming about something he knew could never be.

And now he knew for sure there was a chance.

Hermione said so herself, and she, out of them both, was the one with more reasons to despise the idea. She had seen his Dark Mark, and his books, and saw his worst. She said it wasn’t impossible and Severus believed her answer.

If it didn’t work out, he wasn’t sure he’d handle the heartbreak of knowing it was possible and he screwed it up.


	25. Chapter 25

“Is Dad alright?”

“Why do you ask?” Hermione said as they walked down Spinner’s End.

“You’re worried about something and you were talking with him right before I went downstairs. Is he actually alright or was he pretending so I don’t worry?”

“He’s fine.” If he wasn’t, he didn’t tell Hermione anything either. But he seemed fine enough. Well-humored, even. “I’m worried about something else, sweetie.”

“Like what?”

“Just… Ron.”

And the fact she’d have to break up with him soon enough. Twenty-four hours ago, it was of no consequence when the breakup happened, as long as it was after the war. Somewhere around the night before and the current morning, Hermione realized that yes, it was of consequence to her.

Because she couldn’t stomach still being in a relationship with Ron, not when she was falling for Severus.

Already.

The feeling snuck up on her in a matter of a handful of hours.  

She already knew he was a decent person, but she hadn’t known how nice he smelled fresh out of the shower or how well he could brew a coffee. Or how perceptive and thoughtful he could be.

It wouldn’t be bad at all, would it, to marry him sometime in the future? And have Eileen, and buy a house, and go for the long run?

“Ron’s not going to hate you forever, you know.” Eileen said.

“But he’s going to hate me now.”

And he was one of her best friends. He’d realize what was happening, the moment he got to see her and Severus in the same room. She could hide her feelings well, she supposed, but not from him. Not from Harry, either.

“I guess. I can’t dispute that. I don’t know the whole story.”

Once they opened the door to Grimmauld Place, Ron was the first to run up to them, and embrace Hermione in a tight hug. He went to kiss her lips, and she looked away so the kiss would land on her cheek instead. Thankfully, he was so lost in his relief that he didn’t notice the maneuver.

“I thought Snape had killed you!”

“Ron, frankly, Snape already brought the sword to us. What else can he do so you understand he’s on our side?”

“I don’t know. I just thought—”

“There was a Death Eater outside when I tried to come here. I returned to his house and he decided to go to You-Know-Who to say we’re not here anymore, so I needed to stay and look after Eileen. That was all.”

“You could have sent a Patronus, you know.” Harry said, several steps back.

“The Death Eater could have seen the patronus, Harry.” Hermione said, untangling herself from Ron and going to hug her friend. “I’m sorry. I really couldn’t risk it.”

“And did it work? You-Know-Who is off our backs now?”

“It worked. We can breathe easier now.”

Eileen walked past them, ignoring the whole ruckus.

“I’m starving,” she mumbled to herself as she headed into the kitchen.

Hermione’s stomach growled, and so she followed Eileen, with Harry and Ron at her heels.

“So you slept there?” Harry asked, tentatively.

It was Eileen who answered the question.

“In my room, yes.”

“You _slept_ at his house?” Ron exclaimed to Hermione.

“What else was I supposed to do, Ronald? Stay up all night? We need to get started on the Occlumency lessons. I couldn’t just take today off to catch up on sleep. By the way, we need to start as soon as I’m done with breakfast.”

As she argued with her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend, Eileen had already picked up two cups of yogurt from the icebox. They were all crowded in the kitchen, then. Neither Ron nor Harry were very happy to learn of the impromptu pajama party, and their mood weighed the atmosphere down.

Hermione sat down and began eating her yogurt in silence.

“Whose idea was it?” Ron asked.

“Mine,” Eileen replied. “It really wasn’t safe for Hermione to come back here, and my bed is spacious enough for two. What is the problem?”

Good thing Hermione had Eileen in her corner.

“Well, what if Snape—”

“My dad is not that kind of creepy.”

“Ron, it went fine. Professor Snape is a decent person and a polite host.”

And much more than that, too, Hermione was beginning to realize. Ron crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned against a cabinet, annoyed, though he wasn’t sure at what. He was an inch away from putting the pieces together, except that he simply could not imagine a scenario in which Hermione would have a child with Severus on her own accord.

So the only answer for the riddle was if it _wasn’t_ on her own accord.

But he couldn’t even bring himself to realize Hermione was Eileen’s mother, in the first place. He really didn’t want to. That would end as soon as their relationship ended, no doubt. Which would be way sooner than Hermione hoped it’d be.

“Are the Occlumency lessons working at all?” asked Harry, breaking the silence.

“Yes, yes they are. Professor Snape is a good teacher when he wants to be. I hope I can be half as good, considering we don’t have a pensieve in here.”

“Ew,” Eileen said with a smirk as they all realized the full potential for awkwardness in such an endeavor.

At least Hermione’s thoughts were safe from Ron, since she’d be teaching, though she’d have to remember to put a couple more memories in the pensieve. If Severus went through them, he’d feel what she felt and… She didn’t want him to know anything.

It hadn’t even been a week since Eileen showed up.

“You’re my girlfriend, so there is nothing I wouldn’t want you to see.” Ron said to Hermione, and she wished she could say the same.

“Well, our focus here is Harry, so I’ll start with him today and if I still feel up for it, then I can try and teach you.”

“And me.” Eileen said.

“Are you sure? We _don’t_ have a pensieve, Eileen.”

“I don’t care about what you see in my head. We’re strangers anyway.”

Hermione wasn’t sure which parent taught Eileen to lie that well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I was gone for so long :( Got caught up with a stomach flu and a difficult exam at uni.


	26. Chapter 26

Mind reading was… Unsettling. It was a mixture of a third-person point of view mixed in with the actual sensations of the person’s memories and Hermione wasn’t all that ready to teach anyone Occlumency by attempting to read their minds.

Harry tapped out quickly, at least. Soon Hermione found out he’d been eating her snacks behind her back, and Ron had stolen her expensive shampoo in several occasions. She wasn’t good at Legillimency and they were even worse at Occlumency.

That said, though, it was a good exercise. Hermione wasn’t so undefeatable that they were unmotivated to do better the next day. Trying to hide anything from Severus felt like a futile task; in fact, she feared the lesson for that evening.

But…

It wasn’t evening yet.

“Can I give it a try?” asked Eileen with pleading eyes as they sat around the living room, recovering their breaths.

“Eileen, I am tired.”

“All the better for me. Maybe I can actually defeat you, since I’ve read about Occlumency before.”

“Professor Snape let you read his books?”

“Let is a strong term,” Eileen replied, placid. “Please? Dad would never teach me himself.”

And Hermione had to admit she wanted to see more from Eileen’s life. So she agreed, and they stood in front of each other, Eileen positioned close to the chair they put at the center of the room earlier.

Hermione pointed her wand at her future daughter.

“Legillimens!”

The first thing she felt was warmth. A sour warmth in her tongue, and diffuse white and yellow lights. A soft hum that grew clearer: it was her voice, humming along a lullaby. The memory was her, sitting on a comfortable rocking chair in a flimsy gown, one strap lowered so baby Eileen could breastfeed.

The entire memory was warm: warmth from her milk, from the naked skin of her breast, the sunlight coming through the window. The warmth of a daughter’s love for her mother. A mother’s love for her daughter.

It faded as quickly as it came — as if Eileen was walking Hermione through her mind instead of occluding.

The next was wet. It was still them both, soaking in the same tub, as Hermione struggled to apply a hair mask on Eileen’s stubborn locks. The memory was impatient. Eileen liked soaking with her mommy but liked running around better.

“Daddy doesn’t have to do this with his hair.”

Hermione held back a snicker.

“Daddy’s hair is an oil slick, honey.”

The following memory… Was sad. Eileen was maybe ten, alone in her room — all decorated in dark blues, and purples, and galaxies —, crying to her pillow. Hermione could feel Eileen’s loneliness. The door opened and she herself came in, and sat by the edge of the bed, in her work clothes, with her work bag still.

“Eileen, I’m really sorry. I know you don’t want to go to Hogwarts, but… It’s really important that you go.”

Eileen didn’t want to be away from her home, from her old school friends, and most of all, her parents.

“I don’t want to!” she argued, her voice muffled.

“You won’t be alone at Hogwarts. You’ll make friends, and… Uncle Harry is there. Besides… I bought you a little something.” She then took out of the bag a small box. A smartphone’s box. “You’ve been pestering me for this, and I think it’d be a good time for you to have one. This way, you can be in touch with me and your dad, anytime.”

That persuaded little Eileen to sit up and wipe away her tears.

Then the door opened again, and Severus came in, to sit right beside Hermione — and she had to fight against her heart missing a beat to see herself with him so happily married.

“Did the bribe work?” he asked, worried sick that his baby girl was upset.

“We’re not _bribing_ her,” Hermione said. “It makes sense.”

“I’m not that easily persuaded,” Eileen chimed in the discussion, right on the time for the memory to fade.

Eileen had lost control of the ride, then. A rapid succession of Hogwarts’ memories went through her mind — and so Hermione passed them by, not managing to notice much because of how fast Eileen’s mind was going once it found a train of thought.

In the mess, though, Hermione recognized Harry’s voice several times.

Then her mind stopped at one specific memory. A greenhouse. Hogwarts’ greenhouse. Eileen nudged Hermione forward, but Hermione stomped her metaphorical foot and stayed to see the memory play through.

Eileen was already fifteen, or close to that, walking into the greenhouse. She had forgotten the pouch with quills and ink.

There was a scare, and then a crash. A pot had dropped somewhere. At the corner, Neville Longbottom stared at Eileen, shirtless, a mess of soil and a cracked pot at his feet.

Damn, he got muscly with age.

“Sorry,” Eileen mumbled, apologetic. “I’ll come back later, sir.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. I, hm…” _Professor Longbottom_ found his shirt and put it on. “Just… Knock, next time? It… Hm… Gets hot during the summer.”

Then Hermione felt a tug in her chest, and a more disturbing one between her legs, which didn’t come from _her_.

“Okay. I’m sorry. I just forgot my… Stuff.”

“Oh, the little…” Longbottom made a gesture to describe whatever it was that Eileen left behind.

“That. Yeah.”

“I had put it away.” Took him a while to find it, but he did, and handed it to Eileen who fled the scene.

Only then Hermione allowed the memory to fade and pulled out of Eileen’s mind belting out a laugh.

“Don’t tell Dad?” Eileen asked, standing up from the chair she ended up sitting at during the intrusion on her mind. “He’s going to kill me.”

“I think you are _not_ the person he’s going to murder in this scenario, Eileen.”

“What? What’s happening?” asked Ron, confused.

“It’s nothing.” Hermione and Eileen replied in unison, though Hermione was still trying to get a hold on her laughter.

Like mother like daughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmao maybe there is a second romantic subplot up in here
> 
> also: thank you for all the comments!! I'm still sick so I'm just trying to post often, but there is little energy left to answer all of the comments. Still, I've been reading them all and I'm thankful for all the love and kindness!! They keep me going!


	27. Chapter 27

Hermione’s stomach was tied into a tight knot.

Severus hadn’t told her he could _feel_ what she was feeling. And now she knew firsthand how into her thoughts he had been. Which was fine. She was more worried for the future lessons now that—

“I don’t think he’s home,” Eileen said, after knocking at the front door to his house twice.

“He’s not home?”

Through the curtains, Hermione couldn’t see a thing. The lights weren’t on.

Now there was a memory she’d put away in the pensieve: the one of her growing even more anxious at the thought of him not showing up to the lesson because he had been summoned.

“Nope.”

Eileen was a bit on edge herself.

“And the door’s locked?”

The knob clicked softly, unlocking, when Hermione rested her hand on it.

There was a note resting on top of living room table, and Eileen rushed to it, to then sigh in relief.

“He’s just stuck at Hogwarts.”

Hermione wasn’t so sure Hogwarts was safe at all for him, though at least in matters of safety, it beat a summoning. She didn’t say any of that out loud, so Eileen could breathe easy while she waited for her father.

The girl handed over the note and did her rounds on the floor, turning on the lights.

In Severus’ neat calligraphy, the note said: _A matter has arisen at the very last minute. I will be an hour or two late._

Okay. He’d be fine.

He’d be fine.

“Now, this poses the question. What am I going to have for dinner?” Eileen said to herself as she stared at the contents of the refrigerator.

Hermione pocketed the note and headed to the kitchen.

“I could—”

“You and I both know you really couldn’t cook me dinner.”

Fair enough.

Humming, Eileen just picked up a yogurt, dumped into a bowl and went fishing in the fruit bowl. Hermione bit her lower lip, uncomfortable to be at Spinner’s End without its owner. What was she supposed to do? Sit around? Grab a book?

The discomfort didn’t last long. A couple of moments later, the front door opened.

Eileen leaned in Hermione’s direction.

“So dramatic. He’s like, five minutes late.”

“I _am_ two hours late,” Severus said as he put away his cloak in the living room. “How long do you think it takes to cook for you?”

“Well, you are under no obligation to feed me properly yet.”

Hermione wasn’t sure if she preferred Severus to be there or to be gone. He came over to the kitchen, but leaned against the doorframe, judging Eileen’s poor excuse for a meal from afar.

He wasn’t far from Hermione, though.

“What… What happened?” she asked.

“Longbottom. He’s a troublemaker now, it seems like. Got caught by McGonagall, and naturally she came to me, since the Carrows would no doubt use an Unforgivable or two on him.”

Eileen stiffened midway through slicing a banana.

“But he is okay, right?” Hermione said.

“Physically, yes, he is fine. I can’t quite afford to be nice, even if I remembered how.”

“I hope you weren’t too hard on him.”

Severus sighed.

“It’s… Far too late to change my act now.”

“At least now that I showed up, your act won’t have to last very for very long,” Eileen said, having finished up her “dinner”.

“Hopefully,” Severus replied.

Eileen bid her goodnights and goodbyes — and when her father wasn’t looking, she begged for Hermione to keep her secret.

Hermione and Severus were left alone.

And she really didn’t want to start the lesson.

“Have you eaten?”

“Not… Quite.”

“Well, you should eat something.”

She had to wipe her palms on her jeans. He narrowed his eyes at her and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“What’s the actual matter, Hermione?”

“I… You… Didn’t _tell_ me.”

“You have to be more specific.”

“You didn’t tell me you could feel what I was feeling!”

“I thought that was implicit.”

It was, it was but… Hermione didn’t stop to think about the implications of that.

“I tasted my own breastmilk earlier today.”

“There is a reason why Eileen’s father never taught her,” Severus replied evenly. “I don’t think he could survive the experience without any mental scarring. What did you see?”

“Nothing much. I just… I…”

Then he understood.

“You don’t want to receive lessons from me anymore, is that it?”

“It’s not that, it’s—”

“It is that. I understand. Potter without proper Occlumency training is still a great risk, and however uncomfortable it is, at least he will have to endure the process. It is not necessarily comfortable for me, either, though—”

“It’s uncomfortable,” Hermione confessed, looking away. “But I don’t mean to say I want to stop the lessons.”

“Being uncomfortable is reason enough in my books.”

“Well, this is a war. I can’t be comfortable all the time.”

“I don’t want you to be uncomfortable on my account. Not for me, and not because of me.”

The conversation was going terribly wrong. Though at the point she should have known Severus would consider calling the lessons off over her uneasiness, which was just… Stupid. They could be married in four, five years’ time. What was the problem if he realized she changed her mind?

It wasn’t as if she had reached the point of having any libidinous thoughts.

Not that such a point was too far down the road.

“I’d agree with that,” Hermione said. “If I hadn’t changed my mind about you.”

Severus blinked and adjusted his posture.

“Excuse me?”

“I… Changed my mind. I don’t hate you anymore. I think that… If my future is to marry you, it won’t be so bad. I’ll even… Look forward to it.”

He pressed his lips together and took a deep breath.

“I need a shot of firewhiskey.”

With that, he stormed off to the living room, to his liquor cabinet. Hermione followed at a distance. He took a large swig straight from the bottle, and only then poured a shot for himself.

“Wh—”

“I never thought it’d happen this early. Or that it’d happen at all.”

“What?”

“Telling you. Everything.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am SO SO sorry I've been gone from this fic for so long! Thank you for all the comments and kind words!
> 
> I have been in a bit of a writer's burnout, and it got real intense the past month :(


	28. Chapter 28

Well, at least Eileen was right about _something_.

Severus never thought he’d say anything to a soul other than Dumbledore. It was way too painful; it wouldn’t be more painful than getting his hopes crushed this time around, though. Hermione would never “look forward” to having his child and getting married if she knew.

He had to let her know, before he got anymore time into kidding himself about her and about Eileen. Once Eileen was back to her proper time, he wouldn’t be seeing her again.

“Everything? What—”

“Come on now, Hermione, you’re a smart girl. I did become a Death Eater in the first place.”

He took a sip of his shot and went to sit by the couch. Hermione sat by him, a bit too close; he scooted away to the opposite end and leaned back with a sigh.

“I know that. I assumed that you… Regretted it.”

“Which is a resumed version of the tale, yes, but there is more to it, and I think you should know. Trust me, you can’t live with I’ve done. I barely can.”

“That’s for me to decide.”

She _had_ changed her mind about him. Severus couldn’t allow that to continue.

“I leaked the prophecy to the Dark Lord.”

Hermione paused, staring at him with wide eyes, barely breathing.

“I did know he’d hunt down the poor children who happened to be born at the end of July that year, naturally. I leaked it anyway. I only came to regret that when… When I learned Lily E… Lily Potter was in danger.”

A moment of silence stretched into an eternity. Hermione had one of her hands balled into a fist on top of her thigh, her jaw clenched; Severus thought he didn’t have to say anything else, but after a while he realized she didn’t get the gist of it yet. From his point of view, it was obvious. He supposed, though, with his behavior, it’d be to her an almost impossible thing.

“Because I was in love with her back then. She was my childhood friend. Lived several blocks away from here, in fact. I was in love with her through out most of my Hogwarts’ years and sometime afterwards too. Or at least I… Thought so.”

Hermione’s reply to that was:

“Professor McGonagall was talking about that, uh?”

Severus nodded and downed the rest of his firewhiskey with one sip. It was way too warm still to drink two shots with all the layers of clothing still on, so he popped out a couple of buttons. And leaned back. And waited for Hermione to digest everything.

And start hating him with no chance of return.

She stood up instead and beelined to the liquor cabinet. She sat down and took a timid sip from the bottle.

“Does Eileen know?” Hermione asked in a whisper, her face unreadable.

Though Severus supposed he’d get to know exactly how she felt if she decided to continue the lessons with him after all this.

“Yes. That was how she convinced me she was truly my daughter. Of course, when she wandered into my office telling me she crashed into the past and looked for me because I’d be her father, I was suspicious. Moreso because of who her mother was.”

“Do I know? In the future?”

“Obviously,” Severus replied, offended that she thought he’d hide that from her.

Sensing his offense, she gave a shrug.

“Eileen knows how to keep a secret.”

“She told me I’d tell you at some point and I thought… If it were to happen…” Hermione took another, way less timid, sip. “It’d be way ahead in the future. I don’t know how come I theorized that. As if I’d be able to stomach keeping such a thing from you should we ever…”

Merlin.

The fact Hermione was still too young made matters worse. It wasn’t as if Severus even saw her that way and felt comfortable confiding in her. He just wanted to scare her off before enough time passed to the point where he could, in fact, feel such things.

Frankly, Hermione shouldn’t even be drinking firewhiskey, but he’d give her that for such an unpleasant evening.

“So I knew. And I married you anyway.”

“It seems like it was what happened. In Eileen’s past. Like I have been saying all this time, she _isn’t_ in her past.”

“You only cared about Lily, then? Fuck all the other m… Mudbloods?”

Hermione _shouldn’t_ be drinking firewhiskey. Severus gently removed the bottle from her claws and returned it to the cabinet, where it belonged.

“That was my thought process at the time, yes. What did you expect? I took the Dark Mark. What noble reasons could one have to do such a thing? I was selfish and despicable and there is nothing I can do to truly make up for it.”

“I don’t know what I expected.”

She rested her hands in her palms for a moment, sighed and stood.

“I’m going back to Grimmauld Place.”

Severus couldn’t quite pinpoint what her reaction to the revelation was. She was not happy, for certain, but… Her reaction was way too subdued. Maybe she needed time to truly absorb it all.

“Is there a problem if I take you? I’m not certain is safe for you—"

“I only took a couple of sips, not a couple of shots that are worth about four.”

As she said that, she wobbled on her way to pick up her coat.

“My liver is already used to abusive quantities of alcohol.” Severus argued. “Please. It’ll be harder to live with myself if you get hurt while apparating.”

Hermione groaned and, finally, relented. The walk to the safe apparating spot was silent. She wouldn’t look at him at all, which was to be expected. However, she didn’t hesitate to grab his arm; her fingers lingered there for a couple moments too long after they had arrived.

Severus took it as a sign that’d be okay to walk her to the door. He came to care for her, in a way, so…

“In the morning, you should tell Potter he is to have lessons with me again. I know it’s… Inconvenient, but there is no time to waste.”

“I didn’t say I want to stop the lessons.” She stepped inside and turned to him. “Even though I really should.”

“You know, it will be harder for you to learn if you despise your teacher.”

Potter despised him less, at least, since he didn’t know the whole story.

“I should despise you. I really, really should.”

With that, she shut the door on Severus’ face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for everyone who is glad I am back. I'm still kind of exhausted so I'm still not replying to each individual comment, but I still look forward to reading them every chapter I post! And for the time being, I'll try my best to stick to updating once a week. I posted this chapter early because I didn't want to leave you guys hanging!


	29. Chapter 29

“What’s going on?”

Harry’s voice made Hermione jump — and be glad it was him on guard duty instead of Ron. Surely, it looked all very incriminating, including her firewhiskey scent. At least, though, Harry was aware of what would — what could — transpire in a few years.

Hermione sighed and headed to the living room, somewhere she could sit down.

“Sev— Snape and I had an unpleasant conversation.”

“Did he—”

“No, of course not. It was about his past. What he did.” Harry sat down also, waiting for an elaboration. “I can’t say what it was, but… It was _bad_. Shocking. I don’t know, I… Wasn’t expecting that.”

Though, as Eileen had said, Severus’ big secret was obvious in hindsight.

“You don’t hate him for it, though,” Harry stated.

“I… Don’t. I don’t. I should, but I don’t.”

That was the truth. Yes, it shocked her to know how involved Severus was with the whole situation they were in. Yes, it was heinous. Sure, many people would never be able to look past that, just as he thought.

Hermione wasn’t one of these people, not anymore.

“If it all happens,” she asked. “Will you hate me? Will we stop being friends?”

Harry remained silent for a long minute.

“I don’t know what he did, but if you can look past it, then… You must have a point. Besides… I kind of started to get around liking Eileen, so…”

He gave a shrug.

Okay. So Hermione knew everything. And didn’t hate Severus. And so the chance of Eileen being born grew exponentially.  

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to tell Ron if… Nothing is happening right now, and still…”

“He’s gonna flip.”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t take too long,” Harry said. “By the way, my time is up. Will you stay here, or should I wake Ron up?”

“It’s fine, I’ll watch the door. Good night.”

“Good night.”

There was no way Hermione could sleep that night, not with everything that had happened. Not with all the new information she learned. How likely was it that he was neighbors with Harry’s mother? Still, she should have known Lily Potter had something to do with his change of heart. She could only hope Severus since then had learned his lesson. It seemed to be the case.

Her feelings hadn’t budged, in the end.

They maybe even got a little worse, knowing the chances of future reciprocation went up.

She didn’t sleep. In the early morning, she woke Ron up to shower, change and have a cup of strong coffee before Eileen came around and she was supposed to be teaching Occlumency again.

Hermione wasn’t the only one not to get an ounce of sleep. Severus’ face was nothing short of corpse-like as he delivered Eileen to Grimmauld Place’s doorstep.

Eileen held the door open and didn’t go in.

“I’m not moving until one of you tell me what happened.”

“What happened…” he started, his tone a drag. “Is that I told her. Everything.”

“Oh shit. That early?”

“Yes, that early.”

With that, Severus left. Eileen walked in and closed the door softly.

“That explains why he was clingier than usual this morning.”

“Cling _ier_?”

“You’ll know,” she replied. “You’ll know, won’t you?”

“I don’t hate him, no. I guess that’s a start as good as any.”

Eileen sighed.

“You know, he was just being extra sappy because he thinks he will never see me again and you hate him and everyone hates him because he _loves_ to suffer and make himself miserable. Why do you think he never moved out of that shithole?”

“I don’t hate him, like I said.”

“Tell him that, maybe? He mustn’t be very far out.”

Hermione bit her lower lip. Then she walked out of Grimmauld’s Place, right on time to see Severus nearby the next block. He heard her, though, and tilted his head as he slowed his pace enough for Hermione to catch up.

“I think we need to talk,” she said.

“Is there anything to talk about?”

“Oh, I… I don’t hate you, alright? I just don’t. Yes, it was bad, yes, I suppose it was unforgivable to most people. Not to me. It seems you should know… That.”

His face eased into an expression of sheer disbelief.

“Are you still drunk?”

“I wasn’t even drunk to begin with. Just a bit tipsy.”

Severus looked around to see if anyone from the other very muggle houses woke up to see the two of them standing on the street — while he was fully clad in wizardry robes himself.

“Does that mean you’re fine with me rummaging through your head?”

No.

“Yes. I mean… It’s awkward—”

“To say the least.”

“Though I guess it won’t be too bad. Or as bad as you teaching Harry, anyway.”

Severus had to agree with that, though Hermione could tell he hadn’t bought it yet. And he looked even worse than normal. There was a not small chance he spent the night drinking, not that he smelled like anything other than the usual. After all, a Headmaster reeking of booze didn’t bode all too well.

“It’s fine. It truly is.”

Words wouldn’t reassure him. So Hermione simply wrapped her arms around his waist — he did need to put on some weight as soon as possible — and rested her head on his chest. She’d been feeling like doing that anyway.

“It’s _fine_.”

He didn’t say anything. He held her, for a moment, then stepped away with a feather-light kiss on the top of her head.

“I’m glad,” was his reply before he walked away.

Hermione returned to Grimmauld’s Place with her head spinning. She knew of one thing, though: she should be getting better at Occlumency with a great degree of urgency. She still couldn’t wrap her around the idea of conceiving a child from him, but maybe…

That, too, started to make a little bit of sense.

Eileen was waiting for her with curious eyes and a guilty smile on her lips.

“What?”

“I saw that!”


	30. Chapter 30

Hermione was, to put it lightly, _fucked_.

She hadn’t grown any less fond of him as expected, oh no. The more time she had to process what happened that morning, the more she realized… Oh, it was not at all how she was supposed to react to the whole thing. It really, really wasn’t.

Thank Merlin no one would be reading her mind that day, but… Severus would, in the evening.

“Hey, mom, what’s up? You’re being kind of weird today. Anything to do with what happened earlier? Dad is not being… Creepy, is he?”

Hermione jumped on her spot with a gasp upon hearing Eileen’s voice. She didn’t think anyone followed her when she went to some empty room up the stairs to take a breather from the lessons. She tried not to let any of conflicting feelings show, but she supposed Eileen knew her better than Ron and Harry ever could.

“Not at all, he… I… It was a lot to learn all at once.”

“And you don’t know what to think?”

“No. I mean, yes, kind of. I…” A heavy sigh. “I don’t know.”

“Well, I’m not so sure I can help you with that. I’m biased. He’s my dad and I love him and that’s that on that. For me, at least.”

Hermione remained silent for a moment.

“Can I see him?”, she asked. “In your memories?”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

Eileen planted herself firm on her feet, knowing well a mind-reading could get her landing on her butt on the dusty floors of Grimmauld Place. With shaky hands and shaky breath, Hermione wiped out her wand and whispered “Legillimens”.

“Sweetie, before you go to Hogwarts, there is something I need to tell you.”

“Like you didn’t tell me you could do magic?”, Eileen retorted, accusatory, although Hermione could feel a pang of hurt in her chest. It hurt Eileen to know her father wasn’t perfect and did bad things, like lying to her.

They were in her room. Eileen was set up in her bed, with a muggle book, ready to go to sleep. Severus sat down at the very edge, as if he was afraid she’d bite him if he got too close. Eileen would never do such a thing, but he wasn’t inside her head like Hermione was.

“Precisely. There is…”, he stammered. “I did something terrible, when I was younger. Something unforgivable. And I wasn’t young enough that I didn’t know what I was doing. It hurt many people. I hurt many people.”

Eileen was too young to understand it fully. She knew it was bad, though. She’d never seen Severus that _sad_ about anything.

“And when you go to Hogwarts, some people might find it in themselves to punish you for what I did. Because you are my daughter. They might say terrible things about me, and… They will be right. I want you to be prepared for that, and I want you to know that… I’ll love you. Even if you can’t forgive me for what I did.”

Eileen’s anger subdued. She crawled closer to him and nested in his arms.

“I’d never hate you.”

“I’m well aware you do hate when I said this, love, but you’re too young to understand.”

Hermione saw him petting Eileen’s hair, and felt the touch herself. The memory faded. She was pulled to somewhere else, an empty corner of the showers — in Ravenclaw’s tower, she supposed. Eileen, much taller than in the previous memory, had her phone glued to her ear.  

“Hey, dad. You’re busy?”

“No, we can talk. Did something happen?”

“Hm… No. I just wanted to say I looked you up in the library and I… I think I understand it now.”

A long, pregnant pause. The only sound Hermione could hear was the static of the phonecall.

“Oh.”

“Yeah. I still love you, though, so that’s what’s up in my neck of the woods.”  Hermione knew Eileen’s love hadn’t budged a single bit. On the other side of the line, Severus couldn’t hold back a chuckle. “I thought I’d let you know. But… Promise me you’ll tell me everything when I get home, for the holidays?”

“Of course, baby. I never told you because for one your mom and I thought it’d be best for you to live as normally as possible, for as long as you could. Besides… You wouldn’t have understood.”

“I hate to say this, but you were right.”

“I don’t always fuck up, gladly.”

“I bet you’re surprised. That was a hell of a fuck up, dad.”

“It was, Eileen. It was.”

That seemed to be the tipping point of their relationship. Eileen’s love grew not stronger, but definitely more mature. Memory after memory, Hermione felt appreciation for Severus as a person, not just as a parental figure and there were so many memories of them, with or without Hermione.

Eileen started to lose her pace, and it all became a whirlwind of emotions, smells and sights, to the point Hermione couldn’t make sense of anything and pulled out of Eileen’s mind, a bit nauseated.

“Sorry, sorry!” Eileen said. “I got confused. I didn’t know what to show you!”

“So you showed me everything,” Hermione replied. “And… I couldn’t see anything at all.”

A moment of silence passed.

“So I let you in so hard I shut you out of my mind.”

“Eileen, you truly are a genius.”

“Wait. What? What did I do?”

“We could use that! Properly learning Occlumency will take us so much time, time that we don’t have, but… We don’t need to shut Death Eaters out of our minds. Maybe… We can just scramble them!”

Well, Hermione wasn’t too concerned with Death Eaters at that time. Her elation had more to do with the fact she found a quick way to make sure her feelings about Severus remained out of his reach.

Because… Like what happened to Eileen, knowing Severus’ past changed nothing for the worse. On the contrary.

“Oh, that’s clever!”, Eileen exclaimed. “I _am_ a genius.”


	31. Chapter 31

Hermione had spent the whole day honing her brand new technique with Eileen’s help, that it seemed to her the morning happened ages ago, but once she set foot on Grimmauld’s Place, she remembered she had hugged Severus, and he kissed her forehead and…

What foot were they supposed to be in after all that? Moreso because Hermione knew he meant nothing by any of it. Well, nothing more than deep appreciation and perhaps relief that Eileen existing in the future wasn’t out of his reach.

At least Severus was kind enough to pretend none of that had happened once he welcomed them inside. Instead, he picked them apart with his gaze.

“What were you up to today?”

Was she that transparent to him already…?

“It’s a surprise,” Hermione replied, walking past him and going to settle on the couch to wait until Eileen was upstairs.

“Of the unpleasant kind, I assume.”

“But only for a moment.”

Severus narrowed his gaze at her and sat down on his armchair, carefully.

“It’s nothing bad, really!”, Hermione assured. “I just don’t think it will work if I tell you what I’m planning to do.”

One thing was to scramble Eileen around her head, when it was the first handful of times the girl attempted going into someone else’s mind. Severus, on the other hand, was way more experienced with it. The element of surprise was a key factor in Hermione’s method.

He was almost amused at Hermione’s poor attempt at secrecy.

“I will be eagerly awaiting.”

Eileen had begged to stay for the lesson that day, just to see for herself if it’d work, but Hermione made her promise she’d go to bed. She helped herself and went upstairs as usual, kissing both of her parents on the forehead before going.

“So what is it?”, Severus asked.

“I’ll tell you once the lesson is over.”

With a minimal groan, they readied themselves for the usual procedure. Hermione did try to occlude the traditional way, clearing her thoughts and emptying herself of feelings; she managed to resist Severus a bit, only enough to drop her guards suddenly and started jerking him around whatever unpleasant and painful memories she had. Wounds, cuts, burns, headaches, and even the occasional menstrual cramp.

She was making him _hurt_.

And because he didn’t know what was coming to him, it worked. He taped out, leaning against a wall, a touch out of breath. He had a pleased smiled on his face, though.

“Clever.”

“Did I just win?”

“Don’t make me say it,” he said, still impressed. “How did you manage to think of doing that?”

“I’m clever. And Eileen helped me with the idea, actually. Long story.”

“It won’t work as well a second time.”, he pointed out as he went to sit down for a moment.

“I know. But it can work, right? It’s easier to learn than just blocking everything and… We have no time to waste.”

Severus pressed his lips together in a rigid line.

“I will hold on for as long as I can.”

“You are not well,” Hermione said, as a matter of fact.

The difference between him then and in the future was stark. He was way too thin for his frame, never mind the sickly grey undertone of his face and the dark circles around his eyes. Even the color of his hair seemed dull in comparison. He was under too much pressure.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does to me.”

Hermione sat down, as well, and watched him for a moment.

“We should get started on hunting down the horcruxes,” she said. “Harry and Ron will learn Occlumency this way much faster, let’s face it. I managed to make _you_ give up even though I only trained like this a few hours earlier today. Besides… Eileen can only be here for so long.”

Severus nodded.

“I’m painfully aware of that.” A pause. “I’m sorry, I need a drink.”

He chose wine that time. Hermione felt like they both needed the quiet for a moment. Start hunting the horcruxes would kick the hornet’s nest. It would also be the beginning of the end. It’d mean… It would all be over soon.

And who knew what would happen after that?

“Are you… Afraid?”, she asked.

“I’m relieved. I am at my wit’s end. I’m well aware not even a hundred years of this would be enough to undo what I’ve done, and I would hold on for that long, but… There is only so much I can endure. I’m not certain my best will be enough if this drags on for too long, even if…” he sighed. “Even if now I have an actual reason to survive all of this.”

Hermione didn’t know what to say.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”, Severus said, apologetic. “It must be unsettling to hear from me that I’m keeping it together because in the future I would… Like to… Ah, it’s disgusting to even think about it. You’re a child to me.”

That stung.

“I get it, I know you like Eileen and you want her to happen and the only way she can happen is if—"

“No need to finish the sentence, I know precisely what you mean. You shouldn’t worry about it too much, however. The war isn’t over yet. For it to be over, you need to learn Occlumency first. Maybe we should resume your lesson.”

And they did. As it turned out, Hermione’s method was quite efficient, even without any surprise element. She couldn’t make him give up a second time, but still he couldn’t get to any memories she didn’t want him to see.

“We will talk about any plans to get the horcruxes tomorrow,” Severus said as he held the front door open for Hermione, who just nodded, exhausted. “Do you need me to go with you? You must be tired.”

She nodded again. She could go back by herself, but she didn’t want to.

They said nothing on the way, up until Severus walked her to Grimmauld Place’s front door.

“Good night,” Hermione said.

Should she hug him, like she did in the morning? Would it be okay? Well, it didn’t matter if they hugged, if she was _just a girl_ for him still, so she went for it.

The curve of his neck smelled nice, but it’d freak him out if she kissed it, like she wanted to.  

She should at least break up with Ron first.


	32. Chapter 32

It had been a long day.

Severus wasn’t sure for how long he’d be able to toe the fine line between being completely useless and losing his cover. If only the Carrows figuring him out was his only concern. Of course, the fact he killed Dumbledore helped, but still he couldn’t afford to have any students or staff thinking he started to regret his actions.

He wished could go straight back home…

Swallowing dry, he knocked at Grimmauld’s Place’s front door.

At least it was Eileen the one to welcome him in.

“You look fucking terrible”, she said, hugging him tight by the waist.

“I feel fucking terrible.”

Well, a little less terrible now that he got to kiss his daughter’s hair. He wasn’t sure when in the past few days he started to think of Eileen as his actual daughter. He tried his best not to do so.

“It should be quick. It has to be quick,” Eileen said as she let him go. “I don’t think it’s wise for us three to be in the same room as Ron for too long.”

Hermione was out of her mind if she thought she could keep the Weasley boy from figuring it all out. Sure, she was not the only black woman in the world, as she put it, but… The resemblance was too uncanny, moreso when Eileen smiled.

She was still a teenager, though. He couldn’t blame Hermione for thinking she’d pull that off.

Severus followed Eileen into the dining room, wherein Hermione, Weasley and Potter waited for him; Weasley had his arm over Hermione’s backrest. If Eileen didn’t feel all too great about it all, she didn’t let it show. She plopped down onto a chair and Severus sat beside her.

“I guess I should be speaking”, she prompted. “Considering I know what the plan is. I think the first step here is to try and break into Gringotts.”

“How did we even attempt on doing that?”, Hermione asked, a bit spooked.

“You were disguised as Bellatrix. Polyjuice Potion. As far as I know, you kidnapped her, and took a piece of her hair. And so you, Harry and Ron just try your luck. Basically, it doesn’t work, and you run for your lives from the Death Eaters. The gag here is that, in the end, Bellatrix is gone, and You-Know-Who realizes… You three know about the horcruxes. He thinks you managed to get it out of her.”

Hermione shook her head.

“How on Earth will we kidnap _Bellatrix_?”

Severus was quietly wondering just that. Not that he’d let it show that he had no clue as to how he’d proceed with it.

“As far as I know, we did it in a raid,” Eileen said.

Hermione paused.

“Wait. _We_?”

“What am I supposed to be doing while you’re out there?”

“Be safe here!”

“By myself? What if something goes wrong in the raid and they come to catch me here? I don’t know how to apparate!”

“Wait in your father’s house, then! He’ll be with you.”

“He was in the raid! You wouldn’t be able to kidnap Bellatrix without his help there!”

“There just no way you’re going to a _Death Eater raid_!”

Severus was too busy watching the Weasley boy while Eileen and Hermione bickered like a true mother and daughter pair; Eileen was a moment away from slipping up and calling Hermione “mom”.

That discussion could not continue.

And it hurt to say, Eileen was right. It was best for her not to be alone, even if it meant participating in a kidnap during a Death Eater raid. Any of them could slip, or get caught, even himself. There was always the risk of everything falling onto Voldemort’s lap and if he decided to catch Eileen…

If she was alone, he’d get her.

And if she was stranded away from them, there would be no way for her to tell when to go back home.

“Eileen is going”, he said.

“What?!” Hermione exclaimed.

“She is my daughter and I get to decide what she does.”

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him, and he knew he’d be in trouble for that later. But, since she didn’t want to come out and say she was Eileen’s mother… It was a winning argument.

“I don’t want to babysit her!”, Weasley protested.

“Ron, I don’t think she should be alone, either. And I don’t think Professor Snape should stay with her. Hermione and I will look after her, if you won’t.”

With that, Potter exchanged a glance with Hermione, and they nodded minutely at each other. Hermione didn’t like the idea and did _not_ like the way Severus spoke to her. At least, though, she had Potter on her corner when it came to protecting Eileen.

“I’m not a baby”, Eileen protested.

“You might as well be one, considering you can’t apparate”, Severus replied.

“You could teach me, dad.”

“I’m attempting to keep the list of illegal acts I’ve committed to a minimum.”

Hermione had to relent and accept that Eileen would be involved in the kidnapping. It was decided that Severus would get Bellatrix’s attention and lead her away from the raid, then they’d catch her unaware and take her to Grimmauld Place.

With that, the heated meeting was over, but Severus still had a lesson to teach. Not that Hermione was agreeable when they walked out of Grimmauld Place.

“ _I get to decide what she does_? Really?”

“I just wanted that discussion to be over. Eileen was a moment away from calling you mom.”

Eileen smiled, sheepish, as the three of them walked to the nearest alley.

“Yeah, if we argued enough I think I’d slip. I’ve been calling you mom for as long as I can talk. Old habits die hard, as they say.”

“Haven’t this gone on for too long, Hermione?”, Severus pleaded, knowing this entire thing put Eileen in a delicate position.

Hermione shook her head, hugging herself.

“Ron is going to… React terribly to that. I don’t want to be stranded in the same house as him when he finds out.”

Severus couldn’t blame her for fearing his reaction. He placed a hand on her shoulder and said:

“You are not stranded in Grimmauld’s Place. If there is any trouble you can stay at my house.”

“Yeah!”, Eileen exclaimed. “My room is big enough for two beds.”

He could tell Hermione was thankful for the offer because she nested against him for a moment, before letting go and walking ahead of them.

“Isn’t it weird to help your future wife with boy trouble?” Eileen whispered.

“I don’t want to think about that.”


	33. Chapter 33

“You’ve never told me what I get if I win the game,” Hermione said. “And I have been beating your ass for over a week now.”

Eileen had said the raid wouldn’t happen until October, and so they could do nothing in the meantime but preparing. The Occlumency lessons continued and Severus had to admit, Hermione was a terrific apprentice. He thought she couldn’t think outside of the box and she proved him wrong.

She still couldn’t get him to quit probing her thoughts — the element of surprised helped the first time — but not once did he manage to find the memory she hid each night, maybe because she lived a relatively pain-free life. Menstrual cramps weren’t enough for someone who was used to the pain of a Cruciatus curse.

“Isn’t the joy of honing your Occlumency skills enough reward?”, Severus asked.

He had to be honest: he didn’t think she’d be able to hide anything from him so soon, and he hoped the war didn’t take long enough for her to learn.

“I thought you had something in mind.”

“I must confess I didn’t think that far ahead. And frankly, I own nothing you may want.”

Hermione’s mouth curved upwards in a slow movement and she paced about in the living room.

“Maybe the joy of honing my Legillimency skills will be rewarding enough.”

“No.”

“But—”

“No!”

“I think it’s only fair. And you must be a terrific Occlumens anyway, there is no way I will see anything you don’t want me to see.”

“My head is not a pleasant space, Hermione.”

“I’m well aware at this point.” she retorted. “I just think it makes sense. I’m not training Harry and Ron well enough because I’m not that good at reading minds anyway. How strong can they get if I’m not a good Legillimens?”

It _did_ make perfect sense.

He didn’t like the thought of Hermione going through his head, though. Someone going through his memories on a pensieve felt way too invasive, let alone in his head, where she could feel what he felt.

“I have thought and felt things I’m not proud of. And you won’t learn anything if I just block you out entirely.”

And now he couldn’t get it out of his head that Hermione might be his future wife, after Eileen had said it. He didn’t mean to creep her out by the way he came to think of her. Sure, she was young, but it wasn’t as if their marriage was too far away, if it _were_ to happen.

It was five years away.

“I’m not going to be scared, I promise.”

Severus wanted to believe her.

And he supposed… It was best to scare her away now than scare her away later.

“I hope you mean what you say.”

“I do!”

“I wouldn’t know,” Severus replied. “You have been maneuvering me away from any recent memory.”

“Is that a yes, then?” Hermione said, deflecting the observation. She was learning too much from him.

Severus couldn’t say the word, so he just nodded, and tried to pick a memory where his feelings wouldn’t put Hermione off. Unfortunately, there were none. All his life he’d been angry or way too obsessive or…

Merlin.

It had to be a more recent memory. And his recent memories were all tainted with his feelings for her. He could only hope it wouldn’t scare her.

“Fine. You can try.”

Clearing his mind of any thought was an automatic process, almost like breathing. The careful manipulation of memories was the more conscious process. After so many years, though, clearing his mind was a welcome relief. He let a few memories linger at the top of his mind, ones from the last couple of weeks.

“Legillimens!”

Hermione was almost shy, poking around his brain. He wasn’t even blocking her out with much effort. It was like trying to reach something on the other side of a layer of smoke. She only needed to stretch out her hand.  

She was a lousy Legillimens.

“You can’t be good at reading people’s mind if you’re afraid of what you’ll find.”, he said, which made Hermione withdraw. “You said you wouldn’t be scared. Then don’t be.”

“Okay.”

On the second attempt, she reached out, breaking through the smoke to find a memory of when Severus figured out she’d been hurting him with memories of her cramps, just a few days before. She laughed at his blanched face, and Severus felt embarrassed and impressed in equal measure. Of course, he felt endeared as well.

She had a pretty smile, and an infectious laugh.

He wouldn’t mind being married to her.

He’d look forward to it.

But he wasn’t sure if he should, because Hermione still hadn’t broken up with the Weasley boy, and he started to think that she wouldn’t.

Severus thought it was enough and pushed her out. She accepted the shove without resistance and cleared her throat.

“I’m sorry,” he said after a moment of silence.

“I…” she started. “I _want_ to break up with Ron.”

“You don’t need to reassure me. I’m well aware Eileen’s future is a possibility, not fate. You may not want to part ways with him at all, and I will have to accept that. I just wish you didn’t think you’d need to do such a thing to be honest to him about Eileen. He can’t be angry at you for something you haven’t done yet and might not even do.”

“Well, I already lied to him about it.”

“That wasn’t very clever of you.”

“Not my brightest moment,” she said, and dropped to the couch. “Severus, I think I want this.”

He needed to hear her spelling it out.

“What do you want?”

“This. The whole package. I want… To have Eileen and be a Prime Minister and marry you. Ron will never forgive me for that, you know. It would be easier to say I don’t any of that, and it won’t happen, but I do want it all. I do. I made up my mind, and that’s what I’ve been hiding from you.”

Five years.

It wasn’t a long time at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry the updates have been so spotty! I do have a nasty lesion on my left arm that makes it so painful to type :( That said, though, the story is picking up the pace and I have it all planned out, so I won't abandon it, but the updates will only come whenever my arm decides to hurt less. 
> 
> And sorry if I haven't been replying to comments, I'm trying not to type so much. I've read them all, though, and I appreciate them so much!

**Author's Note:**

> Lmao I know I said I was on a hiatus until june 27th but I wanted to post this plot bunny to use later when I'm done with the other fic in progress


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